Cisco's Flip video recorder enters product graveyard
Written By: Nadia Ibanez
Just when you thought nano-sized video recorders were coming back into style, Cisco’s Flip video camera has been shoved into the product graveyard. Cisco originally purchased the Flip, manufactured by Pure Digital, back in 2009 for $590 million. The Flip shutdown means that about 550 jobs will cease and amount for about $300 million in losses for the first half of Cisco’s fiscal year.
The allure of the Flip to some was that it had the capabilities to be Wi-Fi enabled, meaning once a user took a video, they could automatically upload it to an email attachment or in some sort of social media form. However, since today’s smartphones already have this capability, and with better resolution, the Flip seemed nearly archaic to the average user.
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As part of the company’s comprehensive plan to align its operations, Cisco said in a statement today, it will “exit aspects of its consumer businesses and realign the remaining consumer business to support four of its five key company priorities – core routing, switching and services; collaboration architectures and video. The company plans to support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan.
"We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy," said John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO, in a statement. "As we move forward, our consumer efforts will focus on how we help our enterprise and service provider customers optimize and expand their offerings for consumers, and help ensure the network's ability to deliver on those offerings."
In addition to stopping production of the Flip to streamline business, Cisco plans to:
• Refocus Cisco's Home Networking business for greater profitability and connection to the company's core networking infrastructure as the network expands into a video platform in the home. These industry-leading products will continue to be available through retail channels.
• Integrate Cisco umi into the company's Business TelePresence product line and operate through an enterprise and service provider go-to-market model, consistent with existing business TelePresence efforts.
• Assess core video technology integration of Cisco's Eos media solutions business or other market opportunities for this business.