Monday, April 18, 2011

Smartphones Killed The Video Star


Remember when only a short while ago everyone was raving about the cheap Flip digital video camera from Cisco. Well Cisco last week killed its production. So is the standalone video camera coming to the end of its life and to be replaced by smartphone technology which can already capture life in HD

It only two years since Cisco paid Pure Digital US$590 million to buy the maker of the Flip videocam and this month, Cisco announced a new model: the Flip SlideHD videocam and they were planning to release a further model "FlipLive," which was apparently capable of streaming live video directly to the Web via WiFi.

So why has Flip Flopped?

Some will say Cisco killed the video can to focus on networking and it wasn't really a consumer products company. However as smartphones get smarter and more powerful the closure of its Flip business may just be a sign of things to come? Despite this sign og the times the camcorder market continues to grow both in the US and globally with some 22% worldwide growth.

Imagine you are Kodak and having seen the demise of film, servicing and cameras stand wondering if their video cameras on having one last hurrah?

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