How ironic that my last article stated how I was having a break from my school work yet I've spent the last week trying to finish it off. Nevertheless it's great to be back. What I came back here for was to discuss the demise of the Flip. It's all old news now, more than a week late but I haven't had any time. I can't say the Flip's recent demise was a surprise, the product just felt out of place in the connected and converged world of consumer tech that we live in today. There are several reasons that form the basis of my analysis as to why Cisco shut down the Flip line of camcorders.
How often do you find that a market share leading device get shut down just like that? Two years running after Cisco purchased Pure Digital for 590 million dollars and all of it is essentially down the drain. Probably the largest contributing factor was the pressure from competition. Essentially smartphones and other portable media devices were eating into Flip's dwindling niche segment, it couldn't go on forever. Why would one choose to pick up a stand alone device when they can get comparable devices half the size that can essentially do twice as much.
This is really where it all fell apart, Cisco really didn't know where the Flip wanted to be, what it wanted to be and what kind of people it was supplying. They never wanted the Flip to be the do-it-all devices that are all the rage today. Flip was always going to be a camcorder for the unprofessional, it attracted a certain lifestyle. That grab and go lifestyle was what the Flip really wanted to achieve. Oh, an untimely event? No problem I have my Flip camcorder handy in my back pocket or in my handbag. Then strolled in smartphone and iPod, talk about untimely events! Smartphone or iPod didn't give consumers the same quality video as Flip did, but if people really cared about quality then why not get a proper full size camcorder. The smartphone and iPod essentially stole the market from Flip by providing an inevitably less focused, but more capable product.
This is what I meant by saying the Flip didn't know where it wanted to be. It wanted to be your camcorder for your grab and go requirements, but it also wanted to be of a great quality, which added to its size and gave it its niche factor.
In trying to be so many things, Flip didn't really end up being anything.
Cisco's core business revolves around supplying network solutions to big business and enterprise. This is where it started for them, and its where their focus really is, being the significantly larger part of their business structure. Sucked in by the glamour and success stories of the consumer market, Cisco purchased Pure Digital and more importantly the Flip brand. However the new spread of focus saw Cisco confused with its priorities. HP and others threatened Cisco in the enterprise market, everyone threatened Cisco in consumer market. Where should the focus go? Focus half and half on both wars and logic says you'll eventually lose both. The Cisco restructuring set the priorities straight, the consumer market simply wasn't where Cisco belonged. Flip hung by a thread, and Cisco chopped it.
This whole news on the Flip camcorder shut down begs the question: what about the Sony Bloggie? Or any other mini camcorder for that matter. Are they destined for the same fate? I would believe so. History tells us, common sense tells us, and even biological evolution has shown us that things without a reason for existence, will cease to exist. This is the case for the Bloggie, the product is trapped like a sandwich between two hearty buns. Exactly like the Flip it doesn't want to be high-end, but it's not low end enough to allow for convergence with other devices. Additionally, it's hampered by a hunky slice of beetroot on top with competition from it's own siblings like the Cybershot line, Xperia smartphone line and possibly even the Handycam line. The Bloggie is the unwanted child.
Back to the Flip, despite all its missteps, Flip was a successful contraption. It managed to succeed against the odds until Cisco made the decision to chop it. Whenever I saw someone with a Flip, I would think to myself isn't your phone or digital camera good enough? Either way, Flip had an effect on consumers that can't be described and in spite of overwhelming pressure from encroaching market segments Flip still fought on.
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