The Flip Video camera came from nowhere and disappeared overnight at its peak

There was a time, quite a few years before the mirrorless revolution, when everyone who wanted to shoot video bought a Flip camera. No, not cameras with flippy-out LCDs, but the brand “Flip”. They became the best-selling camcorder in the US and then seemingly disappeared overnight.

In this video, Krazy Ken at Computer Clan walks us through the meteoric rise and sudden, unexpected death of this once-popular brand at its peak.

Flip Video Camera – Who didn’t want one?

Before the modern mirrorless cameras we have today, before DSLRs could even shoot video and before the smartphone camera revolution, there weren’t many options for most people who wanted to shoot casual home movie videos.

The old-school camcorders of the 80s and 90s didn’t really keep up for most people once tapes had been replaced by DVDs. However, in 2002, a man named Jonathan Kaplan set up a company to create inexpensive digital cameras and bring them to mass-market consumers.

It’s an interesting camera because it’s one of relatively few success stories. Sure, there are companies like GoPro and Insta360 who also introduced new and unique cameras and saw great success. But there are also many other, very hyped cameras, like Light L16, which seem to fizzle out and die before they even get to the finish line.

Flip managed to overcome that and actually become the product that people not only wanted but actually bought over the competition. Their first Flip-branded camera was released in 2007. And despite its low 640×480 resolution, its $120 price tag made it very attractive.

The smartphone onslaught commeth

By 2008, Flip had upgraded its cameras to to 720p HD and by 2009, the company was acquired by Cisco, with Kaplan becoming the head of Cisco’s consumer business division. Cisco continued to market the cameras for a few years, but the competition was heating up.

Apple introduced similar video recording capabilities into the iPhone 3GS. Other smartphone manufacturers were also starting to take their camera capabilities more seriously.

Flip was at its peak when Kaplan chose to leave Cisco in 2011. And in Kaplan’s absence, Cisco chose to shut down Flip, just one day before the announcement of its newest flagship camera. Never to be seen again. Which is a shame.

It’s interesting to think how the pocket camera and smartphone camera world might look today, had Cisco chosen to not kill off the Flip brand and its cameras. It was a very popular brand with a loyal following. It would have been interesting to see how many would’ve stuck with that kind of camera in the face of emerging smartphone camera tech.

The whole exercise turned out to be quite expensive for Cisco. The company lost $300 million, and 550 employees had to be let go. But there’s a lot more to it than this, so be sure to watch the whole video.

[via PetaPixel]