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The Flip probably wouldn't have been murdered so easily if Cisco had caught on to something that's been trendy for years: real-time social networking. A slew of general-purpose devices made the Flip irrelevant. Suddenly, the notion of carrying around a cheap camcorder in addition to a general-purpose smartphone or iPod seemed impractical - extra bulk in your pocket. The iPhone 4 and others brought HD video recording to smartphones, eliminating the Flip's last possible advantage.
Cisco flip video camera android#
Why buy a cheap camcorder if you could buy an iPod Nano that shot video, too? In addition to the Nano, Apple had already released the iPhone 3GS, also capable of capturing standard-definition video.Įventually, a slew of Android smartphones also shipped with video-capable cameras, and so did Apple's iPod Touch. " We want to get in on this," said Jobs regarding the budget-camera industry, while showing a slide of the Flip at the 2009 iPod event. When Steve Jobs introduced the camera-equipped iPod Nano in 2009, he made it clear that the Flip budget camcorder was Apple's primary target. Let's get the obvious reason out of the way first. Here are a few reasons why the Flip flopped. After all, there are plenty of camera businesses like Canon that are still alive and well. The Flip would still be around if Cisco had bothered at all to adapt to the market. When phones got HD video recording, the Flip was downright redundant.īut the smartphone wasn't the sole cause of the Flip's fate. When iPhones and Android phones began shipping with decent cameras for shooting stills, the Flip seemed excessive. Just what murdered those cheap, adorable camcorders? The obvious culprit is the general-purpose smartphone. When was the last time you saw someone actually using one of these low-quality, " good-enough" Flips? Probably about two years ago. It's not like the Flip was doing that well of late. It's also a waste, considering that Cisco bought Flip from Pure Digital only two years ago for a cool $590 million.īut Cisco probably had to act fast, because its earnings fell 18% in the second quarter of 2011, and CEO John Chambers had to show he was doing something decisive to stanch the flow. That's a shame, considering how high the Flip was flying a few short years ago. ( WIRED) - Cisco is shutting down a business unit that it bought for over half-a-billion dollars: the Flip camcorder division.