Popularity of Video Killed the Flip Cam

Cue Barbara Streisand — Cisco is killing the Flip Video camera, the once popular way to point and shoot a quick clip. Remember when carrying a Flip was “the thing” for capturing a few minutes of footage anywhere?

Cisco acquired Pure Digital, makers of the Flip, for $590 million in 2009. Nowadays, writes AllThingsD, the iPhone does the job just as well, and sales of the Flip have dipped. Shortly after the sale, iPhone added video capabilities and sales of the Flip during the holiday season dropped 19 percent.

“Video recording is now so common on smart phones that it’s strange if a phone doesn’t do video, and at a quality that matches if not exceeds what a Flip can do,” Arik Hesseldahl writes.

Cisco will undergo a reorganization that will result in 550 layoffs as well.

According to Mashable, the Flip, like the netbook, was “a product that disrupted markets before moving aside for a true successor” like tablets.

Video has also come a long way from the shaky, amateur clips of even just a few years ago. For the PR industry and other areas of business and marketing where video is ubiquitous, making a high-quality clip for a variety of comms purposes is relatively easy, and carrying around a Flip cam has become unnecessary. Aww.

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