I haven’t really studied the story behind Cisco’s axing of the beloved Flip video camera after buying the company that made it for $590 million just two years ago, so I don’t have a strong opinion on it, but I like David Pogue’s argument that the Flip wasn’t killed off simply because it got outflanked by the video recording capabilities of the iPhone.
First, app phones like the iPhone represent only a few percent of cellphone sales. You know who buys app phones? Affluent, East Coast/West Coast, educated, New York Times-reading, Gizmodo-writing Americans.
No, Pogue sees it as one of two things: Cisco simply didn’t know what to do with the device or they were more interested in Flip’s technology (for their own videoconferencing products) than with a consumer electronics device.
The whole piece is a great, thought-provoking read.