The Tragic Death of the Flip

This is indeed a very sad piece of news - at least to me. The Flip video camera has been a constant companion of mine for several years now, and I love it. It was inexpensive, is small and light, very easy to use, has a direct USB connector built-in for easy downloads to a PC, and it takes extremely high quality videos. See my September 21, 2010 blog post for earlier comments. I will continue to use mine as long as it lasts and then look for an alternative. I imagine there will be scrambling to buy the remaining inventory of Flips online and in stores until they are gone.

The Tragic Death of the Flip by David Pogue of the NY Times

"Day before yesterday, my jaw hit the floor, and I still haven’t managed to get it back up again. 

Cisco is killing the Flip camcorder.

 Let’s see if I can get this straight. Only two years ago, Cisco bought Pure Digital, the company that made the Flip, for $590 million. Then, on Tuesday, Cisco announced that it’s shutting down the whole division and laying off 550 people.

We humans are a rational species. Our instinct is to find reasons, to seek patterns where none may exist. In this case, everybody’s first reaction is: “Oh, it’s because of smartphones. Everybody’s shooting video with iPhones nowadays—nobody’s buying Flip camcorders.”

Or, as Gizmodo puts it, “Cisco just axed Flip, yeah, but the blame should be aimed squarely at the smartphone in your pocket.”"

More....................