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Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

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31–40 of 66 posts

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#31
post #12

Really? 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.

Camera phones probably made it inevitable. But Cisco certainly accelerated matters.

I got a Flip camera phone 3 or 4 years back for Christmas. Great impulse buy. I think there was only 1 model. Less than $100. Didn't use it that much but still loved it. Girlfriend, too. Great for trips.

Loved it so much that when it crapped out, we decided to get a new one this year, even though we both have good smartphones. Now there were 2 or 3 models of Flip. None less than $150. I just wanted what I had before. Simple, cheap, works.

I think I got a discounted one on Amazon for a little under $150. Get it in the mail. Doesn't work out of the box. Neither Linux nor Windows computer recognizes it. Won't charge. After an hour on the phone with a woman in the Philippines, we finally got it charging. First time we try to use it, it just shuts down. It was on the next flight back to Amazon.

There was still a market for the old Flip: me. Cisco screwed the pooch on this.

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think the real issue is that the phone video experience will continue to improve, so the market for a dedicated video device is decidedly more about prosumer features than gee-why-not convenience.

i.e. the Flip still has a niche today, but it's clear that the story doesn't end well

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#33
I use 3 Flip cameras to create a video podcast for my church each week. I'm not going for great quality, I'm going for good enough with a simple form factor and and ease of use. This is really disappointing and after what they did to Linksys I'll reconsider any product that I use or am looking at using after Cisco buys them ...

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#34
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

So they acquire talent + brand for a large part of $590 million ? seems pretty expensive.

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#35

I 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…

I can vouch for this. "Extreme" sports practitioners are divided into two groups: those who own a GoPro, and those who covet them.

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#36

I 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…

I've never heard of GoPro before, if skiing and racing cars are your markets I don't think it's competing with Flip.

I think Flip actually lost the fight against PRO-ish (high-end) photo cameras, now they're cheaper, smaller and shot video just perfect, I have seen many youtubers using those instead of Flip (what I believe was their market, home videos).

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#37
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did that acquisition EVER make any sense?

well the logic was the following (I'm assuming): video requires tons of bandwidth, more video out there means more bandwidth requirements. Where are cisco's cash cows? in routers/exchange devices.

Arguably all that video would have been created anyway.

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#38

I 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…

GoPro and Flip were never competitors. If Flip got killed by anything, it's by smartphone.

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#39
The Flip's strength is it's simplicity. Sorry, but I don't buy the idea elsewhere on this thread that Camera phones (w/ video recording) or GoPro's have captured this market. Yes, they both cover some of it, but lets face it we're the geeks - we're likely to spend money on the latest gadget.

The use case I want to suggest is my parents (in their early 60's). They both have cell phones, but they are not smartphones (they're as likely to get an iphone/android device as they are to go base jumping). They got a Flip about 2 years ago and have recorded over 1,000 hours of their grandkids (my kids) on it so far! It's easy to keep in a pocket or a bag, there's an on/off switch and a big red button to record, and of course it easily plugs in to their laptop (mom) / PC (dad). It had made a massive difference to them, and I think they're more likely to record stuff on the Flip than to take a picture of it :-)

Sad to see the Flip go.

Re: Cisco To Shut Down Flip Video Business; Will Give Pink Slips To 550 Employees

#40
post #36

I 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…

I've never heard of GoPro before, if skiing and racing cars are your markets I don't think it's competing with Flip. I think Flip actually lost the fight against PRO-ish (high-end) photo cameras, now they're cheaper, smaller and shot video just perfect, I have seen many youtubers using those instead of Flip (what I believe was their market, home videos).

Check it out (Gopro): http://www.amazon.com/GoPro-HD-HERO-960-Camera/dp/B003YMN3O6...

Compare it to this (the flip): http://www.amazon.com/Flip-UltraHD-Video-Camera-Generation/d...

The gopro is a really great little camera, and it's actually pretty cheap.

People mount these to RC aircraft, or to the side of their motorcycle, or the front of their surfboard, or, anything...

The fact that you've never heard of it isn't an indication that it wouldn't be a competitor to the flip, it's just an indicator that gopro hasn't decided to advertise to you yet.

In my opinion, the gopro is the hands-down better of the two cameras.

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