R.I.P. Flip Cam

Cisco Systems recently announced that it is shutting down the division that makes the Flip video recorder. Technology writers are saying the smartphone killed the Flip Cam, but Jonathan Kaplan, the founder of the start-up that created Flip, tells Michele Norris (NPR) that is not the real story. (Click on title link above to listen.)

Kaplan goes on to say, “What made Flip so wonderfully powerful was that everyone felt they could do it. Everyone felt empowered. Whether you were a five-year-old kid or and eighty-five-year-old grandmother you could pick up a Flip and with a touch of a button you could make something special. I think that dream, that vision, that idea will exist in the future.”

Keep an eye out for Kaplan’s next venture. He says it’s an item that will help collect memories, but one that is not in the consumer electronics space. If it’s as iconic as the Flip, no doubt we’ll be hearing about it.