If you are an Internet marketer, then you know about or personally use the Flip Video Cam
.
This little portable camera that fits in your shirt pocket and uploads quickie videos on YouTube by way of your laptop or desktop has popularized the use of video on sales pages and blogs all over.
The Flip is made by a company called Pure Digital and, according to folklore, started out by making a cheap $29 disposable video camera designed for quick download to a PC. Somewhere along the line, a hacker found a way to reuse the camera over and over. Pure Digital was smart enough to realize that there was a market for a cheap camera and repackaged it into a sturdier and better camera along with more memory capacity and named it "The Flip".
Now, it seems that Cisco, flipped over that camera and the company to the tune of $590 million.
Cisco is not a household name, they make sexy products lke switches and routers -- B-O-R-I-N-G -- So, in orderto gain access into the very lcrative market of home electroncs, it has quietly bougth companies in the past few years such as Scientific Atalnta which makes a lot of TV cable boxes.
No, Cisco has big plans. Why need a laptop when you can upload directly from the camera to YouTube (well,the web in general) directly over WiFi or 4G wireless ?
Heck, why not turn the Flip cam into a PDA device complete with Skype for Internet telephony ;-) I'd buy that for $200. I'd even go as high as $400.
CNet has a pretty good article about that transaction and what the plans are for Cisco. A good read as it gives an indication of what the future holds. For example, here's a quote from teharticle:
Cisco has concentrated on providing connectivity between different products in the home over an IP network. Now with the acquisition of Pure Digital, there is no question that Cisco will be engaging in the rough and tumble of the ultra-competitive world of consumer electronics.
By the way, the flip with Skype is MY idea, you heard it here first!
.This little portable camera that fits in your shirt pocket and uploads quickie videos on YouTube by way of your laptop or desktop has popularized the use of video on sales pages and blogs all over.
The Flip is made by a company called Pure Digital and, according to folklore, started out by making a cheap $29 disposable video camera designed for quick download to a PC. Somewhere along the line, a hacker found a way to reuse the camera over and over. Pure Digital was smart enough to realize that there was a market for a cheap camera and repackaged it into a sturdier and better camera along with more memory capacity and named it "The Flip".
Now, it seems that Cisco, flipped over that camera and the company to the tune of $590 million.
Cisco is not a household name, they make sexy products lke switches and routers -- B-O-R-I-N-G -- So, in orderto gain access into the very lcrative market of home electroncs, it has quietly bougth companies in the past few years such as Scientific Atalnta which makes a lot of TV cable boxes.
No, Cisco has big plans. Why need a laptop when you can upload directly from the camera to YouTube (well,the web in general) directly over WiFi or 4G wireless ?
Heck, why not turn the Flip cam into a PDA device complete with Skype for Internet telephony ;-) I'd buy that for $200. I'd even go as high as $400.
CNet has a pretty good article about that transaction and what the plans are for Cisco. A good read as it gives an indication of what the future holds. For example, here's a quote from teharticle:
Cisco has concentrated on providing connectivity between different products in the home over an IP network. Now with the acquisition of Pure Digital, there is no question that Cisco will be engaging in the rough and tumble of the ultra-competitive world of consumer electronics.
By the way, the flip with Skype is MY idea, you heard it here first!
