The photograph has done the invaluable service of letting humans keep a visual record of history.  Starting out as a clunky and laborious process in the 1800s, technology advanced to the point where photographs could be produced instantly with the Polaroid Land Camera in the late 1940s.  The following decades witnessed further development to camera technology, so much so that the heyday of the instant camera is far in the past.

On this day, February 8th, in 2008, Polaroid announced that it would discontinue the production of all instant film and photos.  The announcement came with the realization that digital cameras would ultimately destroy the chemical film market.  By 2008, sales of all chemical film had dropped by 25% per year since the turn of the century.  Polaroid would redirect all of its production focus to digital photography products following the announcement.

Polaroid would later discover that there are some things that digital photography could not replace.  Consumers still longed for the fun and enjoyable practice of taking a quick snap shot and instantly being able to hold the result.  In October of 2009, Polaroid announced plans to bring back the instant film camera.