The Story of the Successful Life and Abrupt Death of Flip Video Cameras | Hacker News Reader

The Story of the Successful Life and Abrupt Death of Flip Video Cameras

petapixel.com

26 pointsthunderbong26 comments

>On March 19, 2009, Cisco announced it had acquired Pure Digital Technologies for $590 million in stock. When the deal closed in May 2009, Kaplan became the head of Cisco’s consumer business division.

Looks like a successful exit to me.

Everyone who takes VC money wants to either get acquired or IPO. Getting acquired is a a win

GoPro managed to survive smartphone cameras. I wonder if Flip could have too if Cisco wouldn't have killed it off.

Not a promising trend unfortunately https://www.google.com/finance/quote/GPRO:NASDAQ?window=MAX

Even with a tanking stock, I don't really see the market for action cameras to disappear. It might not be big enough to support an entire public company, but I don't see any reason it would be entirely unprofitable.

It's a losing battle against constant improvements in video capturing in smartphones. That plus a few better/cheaper competitors that are trying to make a name for themselves.

DJI and Insta360 are starting to become prominent in the action camera market with better marketing tactics (e.g. providing cameras to influencers/sponsorships).

That's exactly the 2 brands I wanted to mentioned but didn't to not appear as shilling. I was going to get the DJI as it seems like the better choice until finding out it's useless unless I side-load install the app. I got the insta360 ace pro instead. The non-pro ace looks attractive at $100 less, but the 1" vs. 1/2" sensor in reviews seems like it was actually worth the $100 difference. DM me if you like to know how I like it after using it.

London 2009. The first ever Automattic Team meetup and it was Support staff. Matt Mullenweg gave each of us a WP branded Flip camera. I still have mine, though I doubt it holds a charge. Cool toy at the time.

> What might have happened if Google put its eggs in the Flip Video basket instead?

It seems that they could have done both? It could have been the perfect complement to YouTube really. (This was before the iPhone launched)

My kids still use and love my Flip camera

I’ve fond memories of the Flip Camera. I got mine as a swag/gift from Adobe. Many of my first daughter’s activities were captured on this camera. It was handy, easy to use, and was around (thought quality was not the best) more than the Camcorder.

Yes, not long before that people were lugging around shoulder bags with camcorders, tapes, batteries, and other accessories. A video recorder that could fit in your pocket and actually worked well was a pretty amazing upgrade.

> Krazy Ken’s video above offers many more incredible details, including where Kaplan is now (it’s shocking) and what industry experts think led to the downfall of the Flip Video camera series.

I was thinking it was pretty cool to get a summary of the info without having to watch a long, rambling video, until the article abruptly stopped halfway through with this clickbait bullshit.

Anyone got a Tl;dr of what actually happened?

Phones

Apple added video recording to the iPhone 3GS.

This shocking reveal came about 20 min into the advertised video: Cisco decided just to focus on their core business.

So it's all clickbait for the video. That's lame. Won't be reading PetaPixel again.

umeshunni and schwartzworld didn't bother to watch the video, either. The video explicitly denies phones as the reason for Cisco closing Flip, at least for its occurring in 2011. As Flop7331 said, the video concludes that it was Cisco wanting to focus on its core enterprise business and not consumer stuff (again, in 2011).

> didn't bother

There's no need for this. With a written article this long I wouldn't have expected the video to contain information that wasn't also written out.

People posting guesses as if they were fact lowers the quality and value of HN.

I expect that kind of behavior out of "AI" models, not from the Smartest People In The Room™.

It's hardly a guess when the written article literally says “Apple then added comparable video recording capabilities to its iPhone 3GS smartphone. At this point, Cisco didn’t see the writing on the wall and continued to release new Flip Video camera models.”

HN is not, has never been, and is incapable of being, "The smartest people in the room". There is no test to get an account.

Kaplan got into the restaurant business and is currently US ambassador to Singapore.

"Shocking" indeed?

Well, I'm shocked!

Kaplan started The Melt and is now ambassador to Singapore where he has been accused of misconduct. Flip got shut down by Cisco

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