> Steven Sasson invented the first self-contained digital camera at Eastman Kodak in 1975.
I'm not trying to trash the achievement of constructing that device, it was a marvel of engineering, but I think it must have created a misconception in the company that they had a special competence in this area that they really didn't have.
I remember Kodak supporters constantly turning to this as the reason why Kodak would succeed, while it was visibly failing. They did develop a CCD sensor business, but they divested themselves of it in 2011 as part of a strategy that "it would sell assets that are not central to its transformation to a profitable, sustainable digital company".
If they hadn't made market strides with a CCD by 2011; I'm pretty sure that means they missed the mark entirely. If they had beat Sony's digitization of Minolta; or figured out mirrorless first would have been there best out prior to 2011.
The entire digital camera industry was worth about 18 billion in 2017[3]
Even if they captured 100% of the market (which would have been basically completely impossible), it would have been a massive disaster for them as a company, and to the hundreds of thousands of people they employed in photo processing.
[1] https://www.photosecrets.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-kodak
[2] http://www.in2013dollars.com/1993-dollars-in-2018?amount=310...
[3] https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/4514578/digital-c...
Yes, cellphones contain a camera, but the similarities end there.
Smartphones replaced compact cameras for a huge portion of casual photographers but as you point out it's not like camera makers could easily pivot into making smartphones (some of them probably could have if they had anticipated the trend enough, but by the time the iphone came out it was probably already too late to catch up).
Nokia as a company is still doing well, in fact