Diversity helped: Land hired smart female graduates long before stuffier corporations would. His incredible inventiveness – 535 patents – may be hard to emulate, but other ingredients are more replicable. Technological triumph bred stunning financial success: for three decades sales grew 23 percent a year, while earnings and stock prices rose an annualised 17 percent.įounder Edwin Land was central. The cameras peaked with the stylish, foldaway SX-70, introduced in 1972. The public was smitten, as were artists such as Andy Warhol. The upstart company became a tech sensation. It took hours, not minutes, to develop conventional film. In 1948, though, they were revolutionary. They could not be duplicated easily, let alone transmitted electronically.

Polaroid’s not-quite “instant” images seem quaint these days.