Kodak is suggesting an ambitious launch as it teased an image of a shiny new device splashed with its Kodak logo and captioned only with a date plus a tagline, "A Classic is Born. Again."
The image was shared on Kodak's social media accounts, Twitter and Instagram. The teaser image shows what looks like a very thin piece of gadgetry having a small circular button with an engraved Kodak logo.
Although there is not much widespread information on what this could mean, a large number of people are speculating it to be a smartphone, which is possibly the successor to last year's IM5 handset - which was more of a failure than a success - and not a reboot of one of Kodak's classic cameras.
The Road To Bankruptcy
Because it failed to embrace modern technologies more, Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. It was only able to crawl out of this black hole after it sold patents to big tech companies like Google, Samsung and Apple.
Kodak still keeps hold of 6,000 patents including the exclusive rights to expend its intellectual properties and original patents.
"Kodak is a company that's focused on science, material science, synthetic chemical science, as is innovation in the past and we've primarily focused on things like making new types of films, making new types of chemicals and making new particles," Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke said on ABC's The Business.
Following its return to profitability earlier this year, Kodak Alaris announced the release of its Kodak Moments app for Android and iOS that offers narrative photo enhancement tools so users can share rich stories through social media, as printed images, or right within the app.
Getting Back Into The Scene
Judging from its bankruptcy history and its bounce back to productivity, Kodak seems to have learned its lesson, taking into consideration the response of the public on the launch of the Google Pixel, iPhone 7 and Galaxy Note 7.
It unveiled in January the Super 8 Revival Initiative, which aimed to revive the filmmaking industry with its latest Kodak Super 8 camera.
Purportedly coming later this year, the camera's design resembles the Super 8 cameras of yesteryears. It will not be entirely analog as the new design displays a few modern features, including a digital viewfinder.
"Kodak is the last maker of motion picture films, so if you want to see some Star Wars or James Bond in the future on film, we need to keep the factory alive," Clarke said.
Superstar film advocate, Steven Spielberg, boosted excitement levels with his statement.
"For me, 8mm was the beginning of everything. When I think of 8mm, I think of the movies," said Spielberg.
J.J. Abrams, director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens showed his support for Kodak's planned Super 8 camera venture.
"The fact that Kodak is building a brand new Super 8 camera is a dream come true," Abrams said.
Kodak is earning roughly $1.7 billion overall, $200 million of which comes from its filmmaking business industry.
