Cisco announced today that it plans to discontinue the company’s commitment to the Flip video camera (RRWeb). It is another of those situations in which the reason for the original acquisition was unclear and now the decision to drop support for the brand is frustrating.
The Flip was such a great camera for educational applications – inexpensive and intuitive with a reasonable level of video quality.
Perhaps the addition of video capabilities to smart phones and inexpensive digital cameras meant there were just too many alternatives for individual users and individual users represented the market sustaining this product. However, these sources of competition in the general market do not necessarily offer an obvious replacement for schools. I can record high quality video with my 7D but the use of a camera to capture video for extended periods of time is awkward. I don’t think we are at the point that we can rely on student smart phones. We would be faced with the awkward situation in which some students would have a device and others would not. Sharing a personal device would lead to additional complications.
So, I understand that this is the way that business goes and the educational market in this area is not significant. I guess I will be exploring similar products to see what is available.
GigaOm provides an interview with Flip Founder. The one unique insight from this interview was the speculation that the Flip is not an Internet-connected device and some may want connectivity even from single purpose devices.
P.S. – we also learned that the Kodak Zi8 was being discontinued. We found a great deal on a Zi8 at Best Buy and purchased one. You can add an external mike to the Zi8. So, we have a couple of cameras of this type we can use until an obvious replacement emerges.