Cisco to shutter Flip camera line

The Flip camera was great because it was simple to use, one button film making was a great idea. They also understood that it wasn't the capturing of material that was tricky it was moving from one platform to another that was the major hurdle. But the major flaw with the Flip camera for organisations was that if they ended up producing a lot of material it quickly becomes a management headache. And while video is great for lots of documentation it can't cover everything, often you need a mix of different capture types.

At VOXUR we believe that people and organisations use of video is becoming more sophisticated. As well as simply recording video they also require to capture other data and information around that, for example stills, questionnaires and geo tagging information. We feel that they need to be able to manage what they capture and to be able to filter it to extrapolate information and knowledge and finally they need to be able to share that in a variety of forms across different platforms. The good thing about the Flip is that it was easy to use, what ever comes next has to be as easy but do all these other things.

If Cisco wants, I'll take this "trash" off their hands. Unlike them, I actually understand what makes this product great and could turn the company into something great...instead of a novelty or a prize, which Cisco clearly thought it was.

Cisco, the offer stands, split off Flip and name me CEO.

Cisco did what they had to do. This is not uncommon it seems when companies try to enter a market they are not prepared to do advanced expansion. Flip is a great product as illustrated by their competition. Millions of existing cameras are still in use, and will be for sometime. Their recorded video is much better in quality than any smart phone currently sold. In fact, I have a business that specializes in editing video from these "pocket" devices. Our simple, online transfer solution makes it easy to upload the movies for me to edit and deliver Blu-Ray or DVD's. http://cutmyflix.com

Just yesterday I used the Flip to video my wife's graduation ceremony. It really is the most wonderful no-brain-required little gadget. It uses AA batteries you can buy anywhere, and when you're done just plug it into the nearest USB port: the software is on the Flip itself. Why Apple didn't buy this instead of Cisco ... They could really have done something with it

That being said, it really had nowhere to go. Any improvement would add complexity. The smartphone has just killed off yet another category of electronic equipment. But I'll hang onto mine a little longer.

What I see is that nobody really marketed anything interesting in the last year and a half. The most interesting things would be podcasting or silly animations... But for podcasting you need multiple cameras and mics. For any type of staged movies you need effects like stop motion at a minimum.. The issue is that you need fairly fine control of cuts and frames and the only "free" or at least built-in video editor is iMovie by a mile. iMovie hits the frustration limit fairly quickly ... And now you're in for 2 "cheap" cameras, mics, and sets, props, etc. Start dropping more $200 software packages and you're rapidly in $1,000 range for highly ameture, frustrating setup.

Frankly Cisco really wants to be a household name. I'd guess they really bought these to "knife the baby" like they did with Linksys. These would have jumped into "budget conference" territory quickly if they were left alone (I.e. Fix above issues) putting Cisco's really expensive stuff in danger.

I figured, not only since the iPhone 4 and newest iPod touch, but a few months ago they took down ALL the Flip ads on Sunset, some of these of been there since like 2007(?), and they were replaced with vodka ads.

I always have mine in my briefcase, I used it once. Playing with it when I got it in 2009.

I've started seeing Flip posterboard ads in San Francisco BART stations recently, and they made me chuckle a little right from minute one. It's been years since Flip cameras had a bright future.