Comments on: Why Cisco Shut Down the Flip Business

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:28:00 +0000

??? I’m not sure I get your point. I’m not familiar with “Digital”, but Linksys and Scientific Atlanta are both either the number 1 or 2 leaders in their market. Yet both of those markets suck too, as we’re all seeing.

Is that what you’re saying?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:56:00 +0000

how about: Digital, Linksys, Scientific Atlanta to bname a few?

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:45:00 +0000

140 acquisitions and this is the first one shuttered…yeah, that’s a horrible percentage…

The flip was/is the number 1 selling camera and cisco decided they didn’t want to play in that industry anymore. With all of their focus around telepresence products, I’m sure that they want to utilize the flip technologies in other products, instead of just selling it off to another company.

Everyone gets mad when the star player goes into retirement too early…don’t hate the player, hate the game :p

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:36:00 +0000

The Flip lacked Internet connectivity…in other words its competition represented a better value. That is pure and simple why it was lacking and doomed to oblivion. Cisco had/has no consumer electronics talents. It was a dumb acquisition in the first place. Corporate greed that failed.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:34:00 +0000

or it just shows why Cisco is the worst firm in the industry to handle aquisitions. KISS technology, they closed them down also and many others.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:33:00 +0000

or it just shows how bad Cisco is at Aquisitions. KISS technology , closed down,

By: Frank Malloy

Frank Malloy — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:00:00 +0000

This sounds pretty basic, like a “Business 101″ kind of thing. So they spent $500 million on a hobby they are now dumping?

Explain to me why John Chambers still has a job. I keep hearing about how tough it is to be a CEO…If I made a f*ck up like that in my job I’d be out on my ear.

By: Ben Bajarin

Ben Bajarin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 19:26:00 +0000

To your last paragraph.. Wouldn’t you be? :)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:59:00 +0000

Cisco is B2B … that’s for certain. They did OK in the consumer market back in … ugh, was it ’99-’00 maybe, when they were selling the first wifi gizmos? I think saw some Cisco routers in peoples’ homes … but the main place where I saw Cisco (aside from their HUGE campus in/near Milpeni–Milpitas) was in boardrooms. There really was no other competition when it came to those kitschy looking speaker phones … curse you Avaya for stealing their wacky designs.

While a consumer spin off was a fun idea, I can’t imagine any conclusion other than that they totally botched their perception of the consumer market when they jumped all over the Flip. I agree, their timing was waaaaay off of the mark.

I think I first started seeing them around the time I got my N95 and I wondered to myself, “How is it that my phone has a better camera than these little things but people are supposed to want to buy them … when they can get the same thing on their phone?” (That was back when people who knew phones respected Nokia, and back when Nokia was obviously ahead of the “game.” Grrr…)

I could envision the in-betweener market the original company that developed the Flip was going after, but Cisco made a terrible decision to get all up in Pure Digital’s goodies right at a point where people began to think, “Eh, if I want a dedicated camcorder … I’ll get a dedicated camcorder.” Now those devices haunt the bargain bins of CVS/Walgreens/WalMarts everywhere.

I can’t help but wonder if the folks from Pure Digital are sitting back with cigars, brandy and exotic dancers, having dumped what they had the foresight to see as going nowhere, on Cisco, at the right time and for the right price?

By: Alex Asuncion

Alex Asuncion — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:21:00 +0000

Cisco will most likely go back to the basics and cut off from new markets until the next upturn. It is evolving into a non-growth company.

http://xasu.blogspot.com

By: Alex Asuncion

Alex Asuncion — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:21:00 +0000

Cisco will most likely go back to the basics and cut off from new markets until the next upturn. It is evolving into a non-growth company.

http://xasu.blogspot.com