Flip to flop: the pocket camcorder flash in the pan
dpreview.com
dpreview.com
Compared to the Japanese camcorders that required cables, cassettes, and an 80-page manual to figure out, the Flip was a no-brainer for people who just wanted an easy way to shoot video and get it on their computer.
But, as others have noted, what the heck was Cisco thinking? IIRC, the company wanted to push into expensive "telepresence" systems but I don't see how the Flip fit into this vision.
ETA: My pet theory is Cisco corporate strategists or the CEO believed the spin put out by Flip and its investors. Maybe another company was circling, too.
I worked on the Flip Mino, but as a consultant, not a Pure Digital employee. I followed them fairly closely, but didn't have much inside information, so the above is just my own hypothesis. Though OP's article seems to have come to the same conclusion.
Sure, it means the video doesn't align with most computer monitors. But a ton of phone-generated content is being consumed on other phones in its native vertical layout (e.g. on Snapchat). And sometimes vertical layout fits the subject better anyway; we're just not used to seeing it for video because video formats have been stuck at 4:3 or 16:9 for the entire history of consumer video. Photographers have used portrait aspect ratios for over a century.
Even if Cisco hadn't killed Flip when they did, this decade's smartphones would have not long after.
GoPro did pretty well for in world full of smartphones. The Flip could have become that if there had been some innovative people in charge,
Cell phones don't attach to helmets and other sports gear: too big, not rugged, not waterproof, not aerodynamic. And it's really hard to text your friends while the phone's strapped to your head.
I also agree that action cams have a market niche that cell phones can't easily fill. Though that seems to have declined as a lot of people have realized they like the idea of being great adventurers but they don't actually base jump :-)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Mavica#Digital_still_came...
Same thing with optical. I can get a spindle of 50 blanks, so handing off a couple would not bother me.
The thing about the Mavica was that the floppy just popped in and out on the side, just like a floppy drive. Nothing difficult about swapping in a new floppy.
Now - if your world of cheap SDs in 10 packs came about, hopefully the manufacturers would put the card slot in an easy/intuitively accessible areas (and make it easy to pop one in and out - likely using one of the auto-locking push in to release mechanisms).
At this point, though, it doesn't really matter - your phone backs the pics up to the cloud, it's easy to share them from there (or just click on the pic(s) and "share" via umpteen billion options).
It's a nice thought, and I know you don't mean it seriously - the world's moved on, I guess...
One thing we have lost with moving to USB and SD slots.
8-bit guy talking about it, and a few others.
I still keep around a few old Kodak DC3200 cameras, which have a 1.3 mp resolution for use in my shop. One of those was my second digital camera (well, as long as you don't count the various video digitizers I've owned over the years - starting with a DS-69B on my TRS-80 Color Computer); my first real digital camera was this el-cheapo something-or-another that took grainy 320x240 images.
I keep and use the DC3200s in my shop because I don't care if I handle them while my hands are grimy or whatnot, while they still take a decent picture. Their only downside is that they use CF cards, but I still have a ton of those anyhow.
I'm positively spoiled by my Sony A6000.
Additionally, I would attribute the rise of the smart phone more than the Cisco acquisition as the end of the Flip.
Looking back at that moment in time, it seemed a little too early to catch the wave of youtube fame and stardom, but had it been a little later, and a little more refined (and maybe with some endorsement deals or product/service alignment) it seems as though it could have been the kind of product that could land itself in the hands of most youtubers as the preferred video recorder for capture and uploading.
But I guess high-end cell phones and the nightmare of Windows 8 (and weak or absent linux support) probably also had a hand in sealing the flip's fate.