Cisco Shutting Down Flip Camera Business

Cisco announced today that it will be restructuring its consumer business segment. Part of the fall out of this move is the destruction of the Cisco Flip, previously discussed on Tekcert earlier this year. Not much of a surprise since most smart phones have HD cameras built-in and that market has been exploding over the past few years. Who wants to carry around multiple devices anyway?

When I attended Cisco Live 2009, John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO proposed a bold plan of entering dozens of new markets, namely the consumer market. He also outlined plans of getting into security systems and consumer video. Frankly, he sounded like a kid in a candy store with an eye for everything. Fast-forward a couple of years and he has revised his approach with the following statement: “We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy.” Big words to say we're going to go back to basics and dumping that consumer product ideas we had. Who can blame them? The consumer products market is a competitive, low margin business - not something Cisco is used to with their huge margins from selling to enterprise customers.

Hopefully the half a billion they spent acquiring  Flip a couple years ago will not go to waste. I would think they could integrate that into a new IP Phone handset. Although, even IP Phones are doomed with so many cell phones poised to support VOIP. Who needs a wired phone at their desk when there is wireless with QoS? 

Indeed, it is a tough business churning out technology. It never stops changing and there's always someone aiming at the company on top. The good news for you and me is somebody has to support it all. Keep your eyes focused on those certs and keep learning the new stuff as it comes out. Every couple years it'll need to be replaced and someone's got to do it.