In 2007, the simple, easy-to-use Flip camcorder was launched and it quickly rose to the very top of the camcorder market. People loved them; they were frequent give-aways online, the company had great press, and in many ways, Flip was riding the crest of the YouTube generation. In two years, the company sold two million cameras, and that generated enough attention to catch the eye of Silicon Valley elder statesman Cisco.
Cisco was tired of being in the office and wanted to be in your living room, and what better way to do that than to acquire the red-hot Flip? Well, $590 million later, the Flip founders are incredibly rich and Cisco is the leader of the camcorder market. Then, the smartphone revolution happened. Not only were they getting smarter, they were more capable than the Flip. Why carry around multiple things when you can carry one thing to take pictures, text, make phone calls, use GPS, take videos, post videos online, play games, and do pretty much everything imaginable?
Well, the smartphone market growth has crippled Flip, and Cisco is left with egg on their faces and debt on their books. Faced with shrinking sales and reduced profits, Cisco is shuttering its consumer electronics divisions, including the noble Flip. What a difference a few years can make, huh?
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