Cisco Acquire The Flip

As consumers create their own content and feed, blogs, social sites, video sites etc they need simple products and tools and hence devices such as Flip that let them dump their informaation onto YouTube, Facebook, My Space and wherever. What once required detailed technical knowledge and sophisticated tools now can be performed by keeping it simple.

Cisco who have wanted to get a foothold in the consumer market has recognised a winner and bought Pure Digital Technologies, the maker of the Flip tiny video camera, designed for the YouTube crowd. Pur Digital may only have 100 employees but in its Flip they certainly have the right product, in the right place ant the right time and now reap the reward in being bought for $590 million in stock.

Pure Digital started selling the Flip in 2007 and has now shipped more than 2 million units, which cost $150 to $230, depending on the model. The Flip recorders have just a few buttons, weigh a few ounces, have 1.5-inch screens, are supplied without cables but have a built-in connector that plugs into a computer’s U.S.B. port for both recharging and transferring video files. The simple software, design and low cost offered video to the masses.

Cisco’s backing could now enable the Flip penetrate other markets outside of the United States and Britain. Interestingly, Cisco’s CEO family apparently owns 8 of the Flips and Cisco executives often post their own videos to an internal version of YouTube.