I agree that Kodak has to do what it needs to do to maintain it's profitability and business health. Likewise I believe that there are many ways to achieve this goal and perhaps Kodak has missed the boat with some of it's decisions. I also believe that the digital tidal wave has come and it's obviously affecting a lot of companies and products, not just Kodak and B&W. From what I've heard from local photo shops and even the photo departments of local drug stores and 1 hour labs, even color film has shown a marked decline. Kodak Gold and Max products, even APS, may themselves be on the road to extinction.(posted 8124 days ago)It has always been true, since the developement of factory produced films and papers, that the average, amateur, consumer market supported the research, developement, and manufacture of the higher quality or highly specialized professional and commercial lines. Given the rapidly disintegrating consumer market for photographic films and papers, it can hardly be a surprise that Kodak has had to downsize it's entire line. Consider what the impact has been with the almost universal digitization of journalism -- once a voracious consumer of photographic products. From another perspective one could fault Kodak for having stuck with traditional film and paper as long as it has. I am sure that the need for high quality B&W and color film and paper products and related chemicals will continue for a long time. I am sure that niche suppliers will continue to be able to make money in these niche markets for some time. But they will have to have adapted their methods and prices to conform to the market realities. Some types of companies, probably Kodak among them, simply wont' or can't figure a way to make money in these niche markets and will abandon them. Hopefully, for my selfish interests, that will be a long time coming. In the mean time, I think there is an reasonable and unselfish solution:
Let companies that are abandoning certain product lines that still have a small niche market, be they Kodak or other, let them turn over their patents and rights to those products to others who might yet find a way to make a reasonable profit from them. Let these companies that no longer see a profit in them turn over their manufacturing "recipes" and processes to those that will use them. Sort of a "public domain" end of life for them. Then if say, Kodak, doesn't want to make Verichrome Pan any more, or particular sizes of it, they can pull in some loose change licensing it out to Ilford, or some other company who can then continue it's manufacture. Or just give it up if there isn't enough interest to pull in a royalty on it.
This way, Ilford, for instance, could expand from a company that produces Ilford products, to one that produces a whole line of classic and modern films for the vintage (because that is what we are becoming)photography enthusiast or artist. Of course, they would certainly have to charge more than the prices people were used to paying before -- but that's the nature of a niche market.
As always, just my humble opinion.