Kodak Executives Were Shown the First Digital Camera in 1975. They Asked "Why Would Anyone Want to Look at Pictures on a Television?" Then Buried It for 18 Years.

In 1975, a 24-year-old Kodak engineer named Steve Sasson invented the first digital camera. It was an 8-pound contraption that shot 0.01-megapixel black-and-white photos and took 23 seconds per image. Not exactly iPhone quality, but it was the future staring Kodak in the face.

Sasson demoed the technology to Kodak executives, expecting technical questions about resolution, storage, or development potential. Instead, they asked why anyone would want to look at photos on a TV when prints were so cheap and convenient.

At the time, Kodak controlled 90% of the U.S. film market and 85% of camera sales. They were making a fortune on film, processing, and prints — a beautiful recurring revenue machine. Digital photography would cannibalize all of it. So they buried the invention.

Kodak eventually got around to digital... 18 years later, after competitors had eaten their lunch. By 1996, the company peaked at a $28 billion market cap with 140,000 employees. By 2012, they filed for bankruptcy.

The company that literally invented digital photography was destroyed by digital photography. Somewhere, a TV is displaying their pictures.