It’s hard to get a seasoned journalist to express shock and dismay, but on Tuesday, CNN’s Anderson Cooper got rather emotional over a certain piece of news.
“I can’t believe the Flip camera is being discontinued. I love my Flip,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
Meanwhile a more dramatic David Pogue of the New York Times tweeted, “WHAT THE HEY!?!?? Cisco is killing off the Flip camcorder! I know our phones take video, but—come on.”
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Product extinction happens frequently in the fast-paced world of technology, as sleeker, faster, more efficient devices cannibalize old ones. But nearly everyone was shocked on Tuesday when Cisco announced that it was ending its Flip line of cameras, a well-regarded product that Cisco acquired in 2009 for $590 million. Yesterday Pogue reported that Flip cameras represented 35 percent of the camcorder market, and was the bestselling camcorder on Amazon.
So why did Cisco kill the Flip? To focus on what it knows best: enterprise. After dabbling in the consumer electronics market with Flip, Cisco said it planned to restructure the company, refocus its home-networking business, and integrate its ūmi home telepresence product into its enterprise offerings. By the end of the year, Cisco will shed 550 Flip-related employees.
Flip founder Jonathan Kaplan told reporters he was sad Cisco decided to ditch the brand, and that he still believed people wanted a standalone, handheld camera in addition to a smartphone. On Friday, Sony and Kodak also said they weren’t worried about smartphones cannibalizing their lines of personal camcorders.
This Week in Tweets we captured all sorts of reactions to the news of Flip’s death. While many admitted to “two-timing” the Flip with their smartphone cameras and others saw it as a logical business decision, there was a widespread feeling that the Flip had died a premature death.
Meanwhile if you’re looking for a replacement, PC Mag has compiled Ten Top-Notch Flip Video Camera Alternatives.