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The SX-70 will sell for at least $ 100 and perhaps for as much as $175. (For fear of completely halting sales on its higher-priced current models, Polaroid refuses to disclose the exact price of its new one.) Can the mass market possibly bear that price? Land answers extravagantly: "I think this camera can have the same impact as the telephone on the way people live." Polaroid salesmen are so sure of the SX-70's appeal that they speak of rationing it among dealers and predict that every unit produced in the first twelve months—perhaps 1,000,000 or more—will sell instantly. Reason: the new camera eliminates just about all the bugs that have annoyed Polaroid owners, including Land, for the past 24 years.
Garbage-Free. When folded, the SX-70 is about half the size of many old models, small enough (about 11/10 in. by 4 1/5 in. by 7 in.) to fit into the breast pocket of a man's jacket. It weighs 26 oz. and is completely automatic, even to film advancement, which has had to be done manually (and sometimes faultily) in all previous models. The most unreal thing about the SX-70 is its film, which will cost no more than current Polaroid color film (about 45¢ per picture). Flicking out of the camera only 1.2 sec. after exposure, the pictures at first are a mass of opaque blue-gray, then slowly develop within four minutes in full view of the photographer. Sheathed in unscratchable plastic and backed by a thin coating of titanium, they are dry to the touch even while developing, in welcome contrast to the sticky prints and paper wrappers that have always before been part of Polaroid photography. There are no chemical-laden negatives to throw away; this is a "garbage-free" process. Finally, the new film produces brilliant color. Not everyone agrees with Land that the SX-70 is "a wholly new medium," but industry leaders are unanimous that it is a stunning technological achievement.
Rarely in U.S. business history has any company tampered so drastically with a product that is already so successful. Since introducing its first "snap it, see it" cameras in Boston's Jordan Marsh department store in 1948, Polaroid has marketed some 26 million of them; today it sells more cameras in the $50-and-over class than all other companies in the world combined. However, sales really began to take off when the company broke the cost barrier on earlier models and produced Polaroids that retailed at discount for as little as $ 15. Since 1961, revenues have risen by 400%, to last year's $504 million, making Polaroid one of the fastest growing companies of modern times.
As a result, Polaroid stock is one of the favorite glamour issues on Wall Street. Anyone who invested $1,000 in the company in 1938 today has stock worth $3,575,000. Indeed, an investment of $1,000 in Polaroid ten years ago has grown to at least $4,750. The shares held by Land and his family, who control 15% of the total, are worth about half a billion dollars, probably making him the world's richest scientist.