Kodak did themselves in
KodaK did NOT think film would last forever. If anything, they plunged into digital too soon. They pushed their "Create a Print" kiosks (I tried to copy a group portrait on one--it was HORRID), sent their film making off to China in the late 1990s (major loss of quality control), staffed their customer service with idiots (I had gal tell me that "any" one-hour place could print my Horizont panoramic prints, which doesn't fit in 35mm equipment and requires medium-format printing, because she had worked at them; didn't know what an "enlarger" was, and got confused as to whether i wanted "prints" or "enlargements"...), discontinued their best films, flooded their part of the market with cheap junk (oh, the EasyShares that became useless because their poorly-designed battery doors broke), and flat-out abandoned digital just before the "black & white" anti-digital revolution took hold. In the end, they abandoned something they were good at (film,especially black & white) for something they weren't even close to #1 at (digital cameras, printers, jigsaw puzzles, markers...)
