Cisco Killing the Flip Camera

[FirstBassman]

Cisco announced yesterday that it will no longer market the Flip video camera, that it purchased just two years ago:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/12/cisco-flip-camera-killed_n_847962.html


http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/04/12/rip-flip-camera-cisco-restructures/


I know a lot of us here own and think highly of the Flip.

A prevailing thought is that the emergence of the smart phone did in the single-use Flip:


http://gcn.com/blogs/mobileplatform/2011/04/cisco-kills-flip-cam.aspx?s=gcndaily_130411


Coincidently, I just watched an episode of Charlie Rose who argued with Amazon CEO Bezos that multi-use devices (like the iPad) would kill off the Kindle.

 

[Bolide]

In a related story, after failing to enter the New England market succesfully, Tim Horton's has sold all Bess Eaton branding rights to a small Rhode Island start up.

I think in due course Charlie Rose is right, but in the meantime Amazon can still market the Kindle profitably, and possibly make it the standard (viz VHS vs. BetaMax, Word vs. WordPerfect, etc.) Haven't seen too many dedicated word processing machines around lately.

 

[getbent]

Cisco announced yesterday that it will no longer market the Flip video camera, that it purchased just two years ago:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/12/cisco-flip-camera-killed_n_847962.html


http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/04/12/rip-flip-camera-cisco-restructures/


I know a lot of us here own and think highly of the Flip.

A prevailing thought is that the emergence of the smart phone did in the single-use Flip:


http://gcn.com/blogs/mobileplatform/2011/04/cisco-kills-flip-cam.aspx?s=gcndaily_130411


Coincidently, I just watched an episode of Charlie Rose who argued with Amazon CEO Bezos that multi-use devices (like the iPad) would kill off the Kindle.

the power of the kindle is the software and the ease of use of the store. I did a presentation for a large group in the Silicon Valley and one of the Kindle developers (of the new device) was there and she and her husband said, "ooohhh" and laughed (a lighthearted but doomed laugh)

They had to cannibalize their pricing structure, but the push that Bezos had to get books digital and easily bought through Amazon was achieved and he did that... I think some kind of kindle will be around for awhile, but long term, doomed.

The flip camera kind of filled the same niche for video, but with the ipod touch and other like devices... they just do so much and the video quality is just as good... we have a couple of flips around the house and love them....

Cisco is kind of regrouping and this was just one step... it bumped their stock price yesterday in a down market so, I think the street wants them out of the consumer space.

 

[JohnK24]

Nice..I just bought my wife a Flip minoHD last Friday.....

 

[jwayne]

I've heard and believe this to be true to some degree that the basic camera industry is doomed due to cell phone cameras and inventions like the iPOD touch - which can be a phone too with the right apps on it.

Obviously high end cameras will still rule for a while - maybe a long while...but why would we go purchase a 200 dollars or less digital camera when our cell phones pretty much give close to the same quality?

I guess food for thought anyway....

 

[Fearnot]

I can't imagine cellphone cameras wiping out the camera industry... I'm always going to want some real optics to take real photos... but they will make low-end snapshot cameras pretty much irrelevant. In fact, they already have as far as I'm concerned.

 

[JeradP]

I have a Kodak Flip style camcorder, a $100 Kodak Easyshare, a Dell laptop, and a cheapo slider phone without a keyboard. I'm just fine without paying $123490135 a month for a stupid smart phone.

 

[tooncaster]

I just bought a video camera that records to digital tape off a CL listing for $125. It records at very high quality, is USB compatible, iMovie compatible, the works. I like having a hard copy of the events in my life that I record, like my kids growing up and appearing in plays, etc. The idea of trusting it all to a cell phone makes me very uneasy. That's not just the old man in me, it's the librarian in me.

 

[jmaul]

the power of the kindle is the software and the ease of use of the store.

Interesting that this is your take... to me the power of the kindle begins and ends with e-ink. The software and store was certainly a big factor in the beginning but these days ibooks and the nook stores are not noticeably worse from what I've seen.

If those supply chain rumors of dual use LCD's with e-ink are true, I think the fruit stand has a much better chance of cannibalizing e-readers than e-readers evolving into legitimate tablet competitors (I'd keep my eyes on HP though).

 

[jwayne]

cell phones these days store data on a removable memory chip that is very similar to your camera's memory chip - so not worry about trusting all photos and video's on your cell...you can dump them to your PC just like a camera can.

Cell Phones will effect the camera industry on the low end side. Obviously they will not be recording sport games, taking screen prints and the such with cell cameras. Any high quality needs will still be handled by the camera industry. The low end market they will loose out on which probably makes up a good % of there total sales....thus hurting the camera industry.....anyone else think this?

 

[MandyMarie]

I've really been wanting a Flip.

I have an iPhone and I have a ton of video apps that I actually use reguarly (the 8mm app is my favorite), but the load time is exhausting. When I'm in the mood to edit something I just want to get it done. Finding that mood is a rare thing for me and when I have to spend 15 minutes just getting the programs to work properly...the mood passes

Dang it!! Well, if anyone is wanting to sell theirs, gimme a shout!

 

[getbent]

Interesting that this is your take... to me the power of the kindle begins and ends with e-ink. The software and store was certainly a big factor in the beginning but these days ibooks and the nook stores are not noticeably worse from what I've seen.

If those supply chain rumors of dual use LCD's with e-ink are true, I think the fruit stand has a much better chance of cannibalizing e-readers than e-readers evolving into legitimate tablet competitors (I'd keep my eyes on HP though).

jmaul, if I were a young turk looking to make a bunch of money..... I'd come up with a way for people to get a natural voice reader (like Alex) to work as a reader for books.

When I've read the data on what folks comment on (as reason for preference) vs. what makes the actual difference for them, the disparity on the kindle is probably too great to make it long term viable....

I'll be surprised if Amazon (or someone) doesn't come up with that natural voice solution that either embeds in the reader... I think some money is to be had!

If you haven't tried it... in snow leopard, highlight a bunch of text (make sure your stock voice is alex) and go to services and select send to itunes as a spoken track (if the service isn't there, you turn it on in the services preference pane)

pretty awesome... instant audio book. I find that more and more people graze when they read rather than sustained silent reading....

I think that is the future of all that stuff...


Mand! start looking for closeouts! they will be inexpensive!

 

[jmaul]

GB - I had read about the improvements with the Alex voice but haven't tested it, because I don't really have a reason to, but I have many family members who are addicted to audio books, so much that it is the only "reading" they do.

I still prefer the paper versions, but will fully admit that the rise of the internet has exponentially lessened my paper reading- a combination of time suck, on demand information delivery, and likely changes to my brain and attention span.

A true audio book quality reading of any e-book will surely happen, I'm a bit surprised it hasn't yet, and I think there is an opportunity there for sure, but it isn't something that holds much interest for me beyond maybe the programming of linguistics logic. The big strides need to come in voice synthesis- enunciation and cadence; at least that is what always bothers me.

This reminds me that Ebert's new "voice" is supposed to be pretty amazing- developed by some Europeans I believe, and constructed from the huge stock of audio available from his real voice.

 

[nicduffy]

what a Flip Flop

 

[getbent]

the stuff you are asking for is in Alex. The trick is getting it to ios and, of course the demand for other voices... I'm not even proposing that... heck, in Alex, he breathes (audibly) and understands numbers, money, and contextual words (vs. competitors)

you can listen to Alex here...

 

[Birdmankustomz]

cell phones these days store data on a removable memory chip that is very similar to your camera's memory chip - so not worry about trusting all photos and video's on your cell...you can dump them to your PC just like a camera can.

Cell Phones will effect the camera industry on the low end side. Obviously they will not be recording sport games, taking screen prints and the such with cell cameras. Any high quality needs will still be handled by the camera industry. The low end market they will loose out on which probably makes up a good % of there total sales....thus hurting the camera industry.....anyone else think this?

I agree with basically all of it

 

[getbent]

cell phones these days store data on a removable memory chip that is very similar to your camera's memory chip - so not worry about trusting all photos and video's on your cell...you can dump them to your PC just like a camera can.

Cell Phones will effect the camera industry on the low end side. Obviously they will not be recording sport games, taking screen prints and the such with cell cameras. Any high quality needs will still be handled by the camera industry. The low end market they will loose out on which probably makes up a good % of there total sales....thus hurting the camera industry.....anyone else think this?

Almost 5 years ago. I'd expect that in 5 more years the camera business will be folded into other companies except for some very small niches.

cellphone cameras and all in one devices (like iPod Touch) have snagged that low end market awhile back... the folks cruising around with low cost cameras etc use them almost as throw aways...

the lowend of slr cameras are pretty good and the high end cameras have become available to the prosumer... Moore's law keeps going and going... so, the little stuff will get pushed to the side....

 

[Tdot]

Two years ago when I read Cisco was buying the Flip camera... I scratched my head and thought "Why"? And immediately predicted that it was doomed. Typical corporate America. Buy up another company because they're the hot item, looks good on the books, makes stockholders happy. Then when it comes time to cut costs, kill the new company, looks good on the books, makes stockholders happy.

Sure enough. A giant in the network industry buys a video camera company and rebrands it, and as soon as losses show up for Cisco core business, the camera gets ditched because it's an unrelated product. Whereas several other companies are still selling the the same type of product that are copies of the Flip.

Trivia: Bloomberg reports that Flip posted $325 million in revenue last year. However that's less than 1% of Cisco total sales. This shutdown will eliminate 550 jobs.

I've heard and believe this to be true to some degree that the basic camera industry is doomed due to cell phone cameras and inventions like the iPOD touch - which can be a phone too with the right apps on it.

The only advantage phone cameras have is convenience. I have tried many and there simply isn't one (yet) that is flexible and produces great quality images (good enough for web posts maybe). Until the secondary phone feature becomes a real camera, the camera industry is bright.

It seems to me that the ongoing cramming of more features into phones only creates more slower, mediocre, and limited, functions. Any sub-$100 camera will run circles around the fanciest phone cam.

Sometimes I think the camera companies could make better phones.

 

[Danno]

Does this mean the end of the ads with the purdy girl in Premier Guitar?!!

 

[studio1087]

As a FLIP lover and scuba diver I've been wondering when Ikelite or Sea & See would come out with a simple scuba housing for the FLIP. Taking a FLIP diving would have been awesome.

Dang.......I guess the simple, tiny and cheap dive HD video system will have to wait.