via Marketwire:
SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwire – April 12, 2011) – As part of the company’s comprehensive plan to align its operations, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced that it will exit aspects of its consumer businesses and realign the remaining consumer business to support four of its five key company priorities — core routing, switching and services; collaboration; architectures; and video. As part of its plan, Cisco will:
- Close down its Flip business and support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan.
- Refocus Cisco’s Home Networking business for greater profitability and connection to the company’s core networking infrastructure as the network expands into a video platform in the home. These industry-leading products will continue to be available through retail channels.
- Integrate Cisco umi into the company’s Business TelePresence product line and operate through an enterprise and service provider go-to-market model, consistent with existing business TelePresence efforts.
- Assess core video technology integration of Cisco’s Eos media solutions business or other market opportunities for this business.
PCworld.com in September of 2010 (just 7 months ago) comparing Flip video cameras to iOS devices with HD recording capabilities:
The iOS devices are much thinner than the Flip making it easier to slide the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch into your pocket. The thinnest Flip video camera (the MinoHD) measures 0.63-inch depth, while the iPhone 4 is 0.37 inch and the iPod Touch is 0.28 inch.
There’s a lot to love about the Flip when it comes to video quality, but it also has some drawbacks in its size and functionality.
The bottom line, at least according to the specs, is that if you want better video quality, the Flip is still your best choice (perhaps with the exception of the Flip UltraHD 4GB). But how long until iOS devices and others start offering higher frame rates and better video resolution than Cisco’s Flip cameras?
Two years after Cisco pays nearly 600 million dollars for Flip and, 2 years later, kills is internally. They’re spinning it as they aren’t killing it but laying off 590 employees isn’t exactly a “restructuring”.