Citing declining sales due to the vast popularity of digital photography, Kodak announced today that it is officially retiring its Kodachrome film, after a 74 year run. Kodachrome was the world's first commercially successful color film, and first hit the market in 1935, and was a standby of both professional and film photographers for decades. At one point the trademarked term faced the same danger as Kleenex, Xerox, and Google: being used generically to indicate any color film, not just a particular brand within Kodak.

"Kodachrome Film is an iconic product and a testament to Kodak's long and continuing leadership in imaging technology," said the president of Kodak's film, photofinishing, and entertainment group Mary Jane Hellyar, in a statement. "It was certainly a difficult decision to retire it, given its rich history. However, the majority of today's photographers have voiced their preference to capture images with newer technology-both film and digital."

Kodak currently pulls about 70 percent of its revenue from commercial and consumer digital businesses; Kodachrome represented just one percent of Kodak's total still-picture film sales.

Supplies of Kodachrome should last through early autumn. Dwayne's Photo says it will offer processing through 2010-and they've been the only lab processing Kodachrome for some years.

Kodak has assembled a gallery of a few of the iconic images taken with Kodachrome film over the years: check it out, we bet you'll recognize more than a few.