Perhaps you’ve been there.
Willing to do anything to appease a grumpy toddler, you pass over your handheld digital camera and let the tyke give it a try. After all, more often then not, the device was a Flip, a palm-sized, user-friendly, low-cost alternative to the sooo-2000 mommy cam. The virtually indestructible little gem of digital technology had the magic to restore calm in a matter of seconds without a frame of video lost in the process.
But almost as quickly as it seemed to rise, Flip has been sunk, a casualty of Cisco’s inability to keep a winner in the winner’s circle.
In a release on its website, the financially embattled Cisco said it will “exit aspects of its consumer businesses,” closing down its Flip operation and weaning lovers of the device off it with a “transition plan.”
And just like that, the nation’s best-selling camcorder finds itself in a digital graveyard somewhere between MySpace and my old electric blue pager.
Flip’s story reportedly started out in a small office above Gump’s department store in San Francisco in 2001 and it was originally sold in drugstores. I remember. I bought my first one before it even had a name (that came in 2007, two years before Cisco plunked down a reported $590 million to snap up Pure Digital and its signature camera).
No matter what it was called, the little white box with the big red button was soon a hit, stuffing the stockings of college students, traveling in the carry-ons of honeymoomers and chronicling the first moments of life in hospitals everywhere.
It was perfect. As a print journalist, it meant I was able to capture and tell stories in new ways before video was a common feature on smartphones. As an educator, I could afford to teach video shooting and editing more effectively because students actually had cameras in their hands. And as a parent, it was a legitimate option when either my smartphone was out of reach or I was unwilling to put it in harm’s way — and let’s face it, videotaping a toddler can be treacherous for any handheld camera. I’d rather lose a $179 Flip onto the pavement or into a swimming pool than be without my iPhone for a minute.
For everything that was great about the Flip, though, it had its flaws. Integrating a tripod mount took far too long. Silent mode and “child safe” came late, too. And if Cisco wanted to really give consumers a reason to drop a quick couple hundred dollars, it was not going to be with flashy custom skins. I would have been among the first to do so once a microphone jack was added, which could have catapulted the average Flip user to rockstar video producer status and set it apart from the smartphone competition.
But responding to the consumer was apparently not in the business plan of Cisco, and looks to be missing from its future outlook as well. It will become even less relevant to the average consumer, a gamble it apparently is willing to take. And fans like me are left hoping Apple, Sony or really anyone with even an inkling of consumer awareness picks up the Flip ball and runs with it.
