I wonder if the executives who spent $590 million on Pure Digital will also get a pink slip?
Did that acquisition EVER make any sense?
Never. I wonder why these mega-corps make these acquisitions if they always kill the product after some time.
Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
21–30 of 66 posts
Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
#22Did the HD video capability of mobile phones (e.g. iPhone 4) kill the Flip? If so, this has happened before; Pure Digital's first product was a cheap point-and-shoot camera that you'd take in for processing, but it was also beaten by the rise of (equally poor quality) cellphone cameras. Interesting take-away from a user experience perspective. A dedicated device that is famously easy to use, still loses out to more c…
> "A dedicated device that is famously easy to use, still loses out to more complicated devices that do everything."
There's something of a gadget axiom in there. Casual users are, by definition, not interested in the fiddly bits. Thus they value the results over the process, the tools or the craft. Thus they are most-willing to abandon a dedicated device for a good-enough multifunction, if for no other reason than to cut down on extra gadgets for endeavors they don't have a deep interest in.
I think you might be off on 'complicated' though. Note that Flip didn't have any real competition until the latest versions of modern pocket-OSes brought (comparative) simplicity to video. 'Feature-phones' were packing video capabilities for pretty much all of Flip's rise to prominence.
It's the two-tap "upload to youtube/vimeo/facebook" that did them in.
Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
#23I really think the GoPro killed them. If I want good quality video, I need something better than a Flip. If I need a durable, small, device for getting some OK video, I'll get a goPro. If I need OK video quality and don't care about durability, I'll use my smart phone. When I'm out skiing, I see half the teenagers with GoPro's mounted on their helmets, their ski poles, chest harnesses etc video taping each other hitt…
Mmmm...I think it's more likely all the smartphones out there that now have decent enough video capabilities for most people.
For most people, yes. I think the all-in-one packages of phone, mp3 player and camera has put a dent in the bottom line of any low-end single-use device. I bought a Kodak Zi8 back in '09 and to be honest I've only really used it once. The camera on the iPhone can't compete with it, but for a multi-purpose device I'd much rather have a GoPro. I guess Flip failed to take notice that a niche was driving the market.
Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
#24Really? We're surprised by this? Camera phones with video recording capabilities are almost ubiquitous. More then that, they're cheaper and solve the primary usage case better then the portable Flip cameras do. Flip cameras provided better quality portable video and now that embedded mobile technology has caught up to that quality, justifying the price to carry around another device is difficult.
The iPod touch even has pretty good recording features and the ability to take photos, which Flip cameras cant.
After having seen a still from an iPod touch, I'm not entirely sure that's an actual advantage over the Flip.
Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
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Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mmmm...I think it's more likely all the smartphones out there that now have decent enough video capabilities for most people.
For most people, yes. I think the all-in-one packages of phone, mp3 player and camera has put a dent in the bottom line of any low-end single-use device. I bought a Kodak Zi8 back in '09 and to be honest I've only really used it once. The camera on the iPhone can't compete with it, but for a multi-purpose device I'd much rather have a GoPro. I guess Flip failed to take notice that a niche was driving the market.
I have a Zi8 which I haven't used in a long time and didn't use that much when I had it. Now I take video with my iPhone4 all the time.
Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
#27I own 2 flips and I love the simplicity, I share it with my kids and extended family for all occassions. Cisco is positioning itself as enterprise networking company. They should not kill the Flip business, selling it is a good option.
As the article says: "In a world where consumers can now record and stream video directly from their iPhone, Android or BlackBerry phone, Flip’s video camera business is no longer novel or useful."
I would much rather record video with a Flip camera than my Android phone. The Flip is instantly ready to record when I turn it on, and it boots in at most 3 seconds. There is very little delay between stopping and starting, so I don't miss what's going on if I pause/restart to create a new file. My Epic takes several seconds just to load the camera app, several seconds more plus a stupid "MMS vs. normal" question to switch to video, and has an annoying UI.
Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
#28Flip built an interesting product, but it just doesn't offer anything anymore.
I came close to buying one a number of times, but never pulled the trigger because it would have been another device to carry and I wasn't sure how much I'd really use it.
Now, both my phone and my iPod Touch offer everything the Flip did, and I'm already carrying them around with me.
Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
The iPod touch even has pretty good recording features and the ability to take photos, which Flip cameras cant.
After having seen a still from an iPod touch, I'm not entirely sure that's an actual advantage over the Flip.
The popularity of apps like hipstamatic, instagram etc. has somewhat mitigated the desperate need for high quality on these devices. If not in all demographics, i'd hazard a guess in those that would otherwise be most vocal about it.
Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees
#30I wonder if the executives who spent $590 million on Pure Digital will also get a pink slip?
Did that acquisition EVER make any sense?
The acquisition made sense if they wanted to diversify into the consumer space. What did NOT make sense was the astronomical pricetag of $590 million. How many flips + services would need to be sold to generate $590 mil in revenue?