When we got wind of
Cisco's $590 million acquisition of Flip Video-maker Pure Digital, we immediately came to grips with the fit. After all, Cisco's been dying to pull another
Linksys for some time now, and what better to expand its consumer electronics presence than with a cheap-o camcorder that's ripe for the addition of WiFi. Bigwig (and Pure Digital founder) Jonathan Kaplan recently sat down to talk about the product's future, and unsurprisingly, he definitely mentions the integration of Cisco's "strengths" into the handheld camcorder. Furthermore, he's hoping that an entity as large as Cisco can get the Flip Video line overseas, and he's also quite big on "building the brand." The takeaway? Don't be alarmed when a WiFi-equipped, streaming-capable successor hits the scene at CES 2010, complete with automatic upload-to-YouTube functionality.
posted Apr 7th 2009 5:27AM
I think with whathever he's holding in his hand, you wouldn't be allowed to board any airplane in the world, maybe except for some Iraqi or Israeli one-way aerolines... o_O
The Flip is cool today, but its dead as soon as the iPhone gets similar video capabilities with much more functionality (probably in the near future). Wifi on the Flip would be useless without some major overhaul of its specs, which may put it out of its low price range. Bad investment...
Whatever functionality they add -- it had better be simple. They could ruin what makes this admittedly underpowered vidcam so refreshing if they do too much. It is dead simple to use. That's the beauty of it. It's not made for anyone using this website. It's made for your sister, mom, and grandma. And for that -- it's fantastic. Nothing to learn - no complicated interface - not even any cords to maintain. Just plug it into your computer and upload. That's it. If that simplicity dies, so will the product.
My cell phone can take similar quality video -- but it simply isn't easy to migrate that video to other sources. And how many times have you asked someone to take a picture or video of you -- only to spend 5 minutes explaining how to hit the right button? While the Flip lacks any convergence of multiple devices, it is - as I've said before - so simple anyone can use it.
I think it's funny that Darren used the term, "Bigwig," to introduce the obviously balding founder of Pure Digital.
Prediction: There will be 2 versions, the nice one you want will be $300+ and the one you can afford won't be so nice.
If Steve Jobs were Indian...
Boy, I don't really get how this PD acquistion is in Cisco's strategic interest. A network equipment infrastructure company purchasing a consumer gear company? I guess I could understand a bottle maker purchasing a bottled-water company. And it's true that Sony, a hardware CE company purchased Columbia Pictures. But PD and Cisco seem in different worlds. Okay, Cisco has a consumer division now, but this kind of seems like Georgia-Pacific purchasing a wooden chess-set maker. The Linksys deal made sense, being in a related industry. But point-six billlion for PD? Sure, PD's cams create bits that need to be stuffed down the Internet pipes, but the world already seems to be generating increasingly more net-traffic. Did Cisco also bid for YouTube and so on? Maybe this is just an investment without a super firm conneciton to their core business, and they have the right to do that and to experiment a bit. Guess they buy lots of companies. But in what sense is a video camera revolutionary technology? Well, perhaps it might be if they wire up cameras everywhere for Big Brother-style video surveillance or live Google-like Street Views. And more instantaneous delivery to the web could be nice for those "park videos", but won't there be many players in that field after it's all said and done? Anyway, guess they must know something. I know basically zip about business, but this seems to me more like an acquistion done as a personal favorite to a family member or a shareholder. I just don't get it, but, fortunately, Cisco doesn't need me to. But why not buy a company that provides cheap online storage for all our files, or something like that. Well, they've probaby already done that for all I know. At any rate, I sure do get how this makes sense from PD's perspective...as they laugh all the way to the bank. I'm just unclear on why Cisco has 0.6B of stock burning such a hole in their pocket. Yeah, I know that they've spun this purchase as being related and all; I'm just wondering if the Emperor is wearing any clothes.
his other hand was eaten by a seal
I believe the acquisition of PD by Cisco is a move with the long-term (circa. 3-6 yrs) very much in mind.
This is all about the creation and sharing of user-generated video content via the Web. Affordable, easy-to
-shoot, easy-to-share video for the mass consumer market is what this game is all about.
I'm convinced the big guys like Sony and Kodak just don't get it. This new sub-category has less to do with
camcorder hardware and more to do with simple-to-exploit software.
I fully expect to see another 3-5 yrs of double-digit growth (minimum) for PD following integration with Cisco.
PD is a perfect example of a smart company who made a massive impact by following a design strategy
that says less-is-more when addressing the mass digital consumer space. When you look at the big picture,
I suspect Cisco got PD for a bargain!