Polaroid Corporation: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continue to be the company's flagship product line. The company's original dominant market was in polarized sunglasses, an outgrowth of Land's self-guided research in polarization after leaving Harvard at the age of 17 (he later returned to Harvard to continue his research).

After Polaroid defeated Kodak in a patent battle, Kodak left the instant camera business on January 9, 1986.

Polaroid managed to develop an instant movie system based on the Dufay color process. The product was too late to market and had to compete with the upcoming video based systems. As a result most of the manufactured product was sold off as a job lot.

The company entered the digital photography market late in the game, and as a result has neither a significant market share nor significant innovation in this area.

The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection in October 11, 2001, but most of the business is carried on by a new Polaroid company managed by Bank One. Criticism has been raised over the way this process was undertaken, because the process left the executives of the company with healthy bonuses, while stock holders, as well as current and retired employees, were left with nothing.