How Out Of It Is Kodak?

Dan Carp, who happens to be CEO of Kodak, the company that has been left high and dry by the digital tsunami, gave a keynote speech at a wireless trade show this week in which he warned that camera phones could “fade into niche obscurity,” according to the Wall Street Journal, “if the industry doesn’t improve the quality of the phones and the experience of using them.”

According to Carp, who has successfully redeployed the fast-fading cash from Kodak’s film business into all manner of lousy digital and printed-related businesses, the consumer wants better image quality, battery life and printing capabilities. Many consumers find camera phones “less than satisfying.”

The man has no clue.

Far from being a teenage girl-specific fad–and I have two teenage daughters–camera phones are useful in a whole bunch of ways I never imagined, from Sting fans taking pictures and short videos of the rock star and sending them to friends while the concert was still going, to heavy travelers like me swapping pictures with their kids to let them know, say, your plane landed safely, or you miss them.

Being in Florida for a family illness, I got a late-night picture on my cell phone last night showing the cats resting comfortably on the bed. All was well at home.

Mr. Carp, in remarks intended, I suppose, to show how aggressively Kodak is staking out new frontiers in the digital realm, only proves how ignorant he is of what consumers actually do with one of the most successful consumer products of modern times.

Don’t bet on him–or Kodak–to lead the revolution.

Jeff Matthews I’m Not Making This Up