Technology and innovation managementCASE STUDY OF AN IMPORTANT INNOVATION: THE POLAROID SX-70 LAND CAMERA IntroductionToday the ability to take photos and share them instantly with other people is a given in fact. But it wasn't always like this. In the 70s photography was a discipline reserved for professionals. Cameras were expensive and film negatives had to be sent to photo labs to be developed and printed. Enter the Polaroid SX-70. First introduced in 1972, the Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera, the first instant camera designed entirely for the average consumer, is one of the most revolutionary technological innovations of the 20th century. This camera allowed the user to easily take quality photos, which would then be printed directly into the owner's hands. Its entire design has been designed with user comfort in mind, from the physical appearance (the camera can be folded and inserted into a pocket) to the ease of use of the product (the user simply needs to point at an object, place fire and press a button). We often consider Sony's Walkman or Apple's iPhone to be the greatest technological innovations of the last century, but the SX-70 has its place on the shelf of "the world's most innovative products." The SX-70 made the front page of Time and Life Magazine and, according to Fortune Magazine, “one of the most remarkable achievements in industrial history. The project involved a series of scientific discoveries, inventions and technological innovations in fields as disparate as chemistry, optics and electronics. (Fortune Magazine, 1972). By 1974, 700,000 SX-70s were sold, and famous artists such as Andy Warhol adopted the camera. The SX-70 was one of the first products to be...... middle of paper......Smith C. (2014), Retrotech the Polaroid SX-70 (https://home.bt. com/techgadgets/techfeatures/retro-tech-the-polaroid-sx70-11363867101766)McCracken H. (2011), Polaroid's SX-70: The Art and Science of the Nearly Impossible (http://technologizer.com/2011/06 /08/polaroid/) Gordon ME (2010), Who killed the Polaroid? (http://negocios.udd.cl/files/2012/09/POLAROID-COMPLETE.pdf) Plummer T. (1982), Unusual optics of the Polaroid SX-70 camera, Applied Optics, vol. 21, number 2, pp. 196-202 (http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ao/fulltext.cfm?uri=ao-21-2-196&id=25488) Last Piece of Magic (1972), Fortune magazine (http://books.google .fr/books?id=ulYEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA42&dq=polaroid&lr=&as_pt=MAGAZINES&rview=1&pg=PA42&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false)Gharud R. and Munir K. (2008), From transaction to transformation costs: the case of Polaroid SX-70 camera, Elsevier