Polaroid's New Instant Camera, The PoGo: Instant Failure

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.polaroid.com/CES/ProductDetail.jsp?folder_id=2534374302037099&prod_code=PG009' target='_blank'>http://www.polaroid.com/CES/Product...prod_code=PG009</a><br /><br /></div><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1232754077.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>It almost seems a shame to pick on a brand that's on its last legs, but when I stopped by the <a href="http://www.polaroid.com/CES/index.jsp?co=us&amp;bmLocale=en_US" target="_blank">Polaroid</a> booth at CES 2009 in January, I couldn't help but feel baffled by the Polaroid PoGo they were showing. For those of you that haven't seen this rather curious piece of hardware, it's their answer to Polaroid instant cameras slowly but surely going away (Polaroid announced they're not making the film for them any longer). The PoGo is a digital camera with a built-in printer. If your first thought is "Whoa, sounds big!" you're right on the money. <MORE /></p><p>The PoGo is a chunky camera that looks like it came straight out of 1999. You might be able to forgive the size if the functionality was off-the-charts awesome, but it's not: the image above is a scan I did of a print-out that I received from the PoGo camera. As a digital camera, the images I saw on the screen looked quite bad. As a printer, they looked even worse. The "secret" to in-camera printing is the <a href="http://www.polaroid.com/CES/ProductDetail.jsp?folder_id=2534374302037100&amp;prod_code=PG002" target="_blank">Zink Photo Paper</a>, which is heat-activated, and cranks out small 2 inch by 3 inch photos that double as stickers. Yes, that's right, stickers.</p><p>I might be move forgiving of the PoGo in it's <a href="http://www.polaroid.com/CES/ProductDetail.jsp?folder_id=2534374302037098&amp;prod_code=PG001" target="_blank">printer-only form</a>, but considering it can only print out 15 images before the batteries go dead, I have to scratch my head and ask "What's the point?". If this was a $49 product aimed at kids, maybe this would get some traction, but considering the cost of the consumables and the atrocious battery life, I can't see it very successful there either. Who's going to buy this thing?</p><p>I don't know what the future holds for Polaroid, but if the PoGo is the best they can do, they should pack it in and exit the market while the brand still has a few shreds of dignity left.</p>

[randalllewis]

Polaroid has long had problems when they've tried to make lower cost consumer cameras...even pre digital. I won't try to judge the higher end cameras from their hey day because I never owned one. I had relatives who owned high end Polaroids and I don't remember them ever taking a good picture, but I was still excited about the concept Polaroid represented and I asked my parents for a Polaroid Swinger model one Christmas. I was happy to get it even though it took crappy, 2 by 3 black and white pictures. And this is what I meant about Polaroid's problems with lower cost products- the Swinger actually came with a small container filed with a "fixer" that you had to apply with a pink sponge to the photo shortly after taking it. Otherwise it would fade rather quickly. The Swinger was marketed to kids! It came with toxic chemicals in a plastic container that you had to handle! What were they thinking?

I am surprised to hear Polaroid has survived this long.

[doogald]

I am surprised to hear Polaroid has survived this long.

They haven't. The name was purchased by bottom-feeders after the original company filed Chapter 11 several years ago, and the new company itself filed for Chapter 11 protection a few months ago. They announced that they are no longer making cameras and will stop making film soon. As far as I know the crap that they sell are just rebranded junk rather than anything that the company designs. It isn't even close to the same company, just venture (or vulture) capitalists who tried to make money on any remaining brand equity.

[Damion Chaplin]

If your first thought is "Whoa, sounds big!" you're right on the money.

Really??? I mean, have you seen the old Instamatic cameras? Even the ones they sold this millenium weren't exactly pocket-sized. And while I can't really get a good idea of the size of this new camera, it sure looks smaller than an Instamatic to me.

Our business has an Instamatic at each of our stores so a customer can take it home and take pictures of their problem. They generally only take 2-3 pictures before bringing it back. In this scenario, this PoGo might actually be a suitable replacement.

However, those 2x3 self-adhesive photos are seriously juvenile. It's kind of like they couldn't get it to print a size that fits in a frame, so they just made it so you could stick the photo to the front of any frame. ;)

They really would have been better off releasing the printer part by itself and leaving it at that. Attach it to the tripod mount on the bottom of every digital camera, utilizing PictBridge or something similar and you might have a product that's tempting.

Right now though, it's kind of a joke.