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  • Ice harvesting, digital imaging and why history matters

    Those who study history and understand theory can make better predictions. The quote below comes from James M. Utterback, an MIT professor who has done pioneering work regarding the interplay between technological change and industrial dynamics. In 1994, Utterback compared photographic film with the old Ice harvesting industry in the Boston area, a vibrant business […]

  • Will driverless vehicles prevail?

    Intelligent vehicles have been around for quite some time already. Researchers at Freie University in Berlin have been working on this since 2006 and recently exhibited a Volkswagen Passat driving and parking at the intended place without any driver. Google’s driverless car project has received a lot of attention and substantial investments are now being […]

  • The Economist Group – what can we learn from this rare digital success story?

    Over the last years you’ve heard it everywhere – printed media and newspapers are collapsing, the internet is killing their business and there’s nothing they can do about it. Well think again. We live in a world where the amount of information keeps growing at an annual rate of about 50 percent. In 2006, three […]

  • Quotes from Kodak’s annual report 2000

    As we move further into the information age, historical documents are increasingly available online, giving us the opportunity to marvel at how the times are changing. The statement below comes from Kodak’s annual report in 2000 (the complete quote can be found here), which is the year when Kodak’s decline was about to accelerate. “Last […]

  • Nokia’s decline in figures

    I collected som key statistics on the performance of Nokia during the period 2004-2012. While these figures need to be analyzed in further detail, a glimpse at them still gives a good idea of what has happened. The first graph depicts Nokia’s sold volumes, both in emerging markets (China, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and […]

  • Polaroid enters the video surveillance industry?!

    Polaroid went bankrupt in late 2001 as digital imaging destroyed its profitable revenues from instant film photography. In 1997, the stock was traded around 60 dollars, four years later it was frozen at 28 cents. Ever since, the brand has lived on in various shapes and in various settings, art being one of them. The […]

  • No more Kodak moments in the Olympics

    Looking back at the rise and fall of Kodak over the past century, one can make several observations about its role in society. Kodak’s hegemony was manifested through its strong presence in the Olympic Games. During these games, not only athletes compete – firms also compete for our attention. Tracking Kodak’s role in the Olympic […]

  • Paper accepted: Facit and the Displacement of mechanical calculators

    I was just recently informed that my article Facit and the Displacement of mechanical calculators has been accepted for publication in the journal Annals of the History of Computing. The paper seeks to explain why Facit – a Swedish manufacturer of calculators, typewriters and office furniture declined in the shift to electronics in the early […]

  • Nokia quarterly presentations 2007-2010: “Nokia’s longer term strategy remains valid and intact”

    Apple’s IPhone was first revealed in January 2007 and available for consumers in June the same year in the United States, then progressively launched globally in 2008. Out of curiosity I pondered through Nokia’s quarterly presentation slides in the years 2007-2010 in order to get a better idea about how they related to the ongoing […]

  • Explaining the Collapse of Nokia

    In 2005, Nokia was the fifth most valuable brand in the world. With a turnover of 51,1 billion euros in 2007 and an operating profit of 8 billion euros, the company’s market share had climbed well above 40 percent. At this point, most mutual funds had invested significant shares of their funds in Nokia, probably […]