RIP: The Flip Camcorder

In 2007, the easy-to-use and portable Flip camcorder was launched.  The brainchild of a group of entrepreneurs in San Francisco, the Flip was the antithesis of most camcorders:  simple, easy, small, and very consumer-friendly.  You didn’t have to know anything about apertures or whatnot to use it, it just worked and filmed whatever you were pointing it at.  However, all good things must come to an end, and the end of the Flip started when it was purchased in 2009 by Cisco for $590 million.  Cisco has officially killed off the Flip camcorder and its consumer products divisions, representing a costly failure for the networking giant in an ill-fated attempt to broaden its business.

Why is Cisco killing the Flip?  Well, that is twofold.  For one, cameras aren’t selling anymore; the pocket camcorder market, like the MP3 player, cellular phone, GPS, PDA, and point-and-shoot camera, is being destroyed by do-it-all smartphones.  Another reason?  Well, Cisco simply had no idea how to handle a consumer product.  Cisco knows office back-end and networking, not marketing to people.

How will this affect Flip owners?  Well, Flip’s uploading and networking services will probably be ending, but the Flip itself is still able to take all the video you want, provided you upload it to YouTube rather than the on-board Flip video sharing services.  So basically, The Flip still works if you want a video camera and don’t want to take video on your iPhone.

Tags: Flip, Cisco Flip, Cisco kills the Flip, Flip camcorder, camcorders, The Flip camcorder division closed by Cisco, Cisco closes down Flip, San Francisco, California, Cisco closes Flip division, consumer products, Cisco ends consumer products division

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