Cisco Ditches Flip and $590 Million 121
darthcamaro writes "Remember the Flip? When Pure Digital Technology first came out with the device it was one of the hottest gadgets, providing users with an ultra-portable camcorder. Then Cisco came along and bought the Flip for $590 million in 2009. Now less than two years later, Cisco is throwing the money, 550 employees and the Flip out the door." Wired has an analysis of why Flip floundered. I hope this means I can find a AA-powered Flip UltraHD for $50 in a clearance bin.
Yet again another product that I never knew about. (Score:3, Insightful)
I cannot be the only person here who thinks maybe that the company problem is that I was never aware of them?
It's not just the fact that smart phones did it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Can I be the first to say... (Score:1, Insightful)
No, because it's already in the headline of the Wired article.
Market shift and Cisco incompetence... (Score:4, Insightful)
However, it really doesn't help that Cisco did surprisingly little with the company after they acquired it, and some of what they did do was questionable. The 'Slide' model was rather pitiful, their experiments in replacing the simple tried and true physical buttons with (lousy) touchscreens were failures, and they stuck with a price tag that was always hovering dangerously close to more capable devices. Other than a few incremental spec bumps there was almost no development of the product line for two years.
Re:This is what companies do (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Can I be the first to say... (Score:4, Insightful)
1/2 Billion is a LOT of router and switch sales to make up.
good riddance (Score:4, Insightful)
TFA missed a very important reason: no SD expansion slot.
Every single time I saw them on a store first thing I did was check if there was a way to expand memory with SD card. Nope?... well, ain't buying it then.
Re:Can I be the first to say... (Score:3, Insightful)
Why does Cisco buying them have anything to do with that? The product was a huge hit before they bought it. Cisco owning it didn't add anything.