We actually purchased a few of the more higher end products some years ago. The hardware was/is good, we're happy with it and we're still using it, but with a different software. Don't know how it is now, but back then you needed to have their USB stick with the software attached to the PC and/or the license was attached to specific user and laptop which was way too restricive for us to really make it usable. (And, let's face it: Writing a prompter software is not rocket science, so why try to lock it anway.)
I found youtube really has a golden hand in throwing adds at me for which I am simply not part of the target audience. Wrong age group, gender, hobbies, geographic location, income class. I'm happy their AI is sniffing glue and slurping paint remover ;-)
@@WaldherzOn the contrary: the widespread existence of such a tool makes youtubers bargaining position in a sponsor deal worse, because companies know their sponsor spot isn't going to get as many views. Life isn't free for UA-camrs, if you didn't know.
The main reason Cisco bought Flip was to acquire their video patents which Cisco could use to fight against lawsuits from other video conferencing hardware providers. For that, Flip may well have been worth $300m. Many people think the plan was always to shut down the consumer side of the business.
I immediately thought of this when watching the cisco acquisition part. They are still the big players in video conferencing technology provider market.
Back then Cisco was also doing a lot of product placement on tv shows and movies; lots of Cisco 7900 series ip phones with gigantic Cisco logos. I always thought Flip was part of that along with Linksys, which was also a big flop.
My uncle got an Ultra and didn't get much use out of it, so then it became my first digital camera (video or picture). Lots of fond memories, from making movies with toys on my bed to documenting ideas and creations of mine. :)
I was teaching a video editing class at a community college back them - we had ZERO money but I was able to convince them I needed the students to get cameras so we could EDIT footage that was THIER work so they would be inspired to cut it... These cameras were a GODSEND to that class although I recall having to transcode the format.. It all worked best since the tiny budget meant this way I was able to get everyone a camera instead of just 1 or 2 .. they had a place and time
I worked at an electronics store at the time Flip hit it big. I got a good deal on one between sales pricing, coupons, and employee discount. My wife asked me why and I said because this was basically a look at the future. Everyone will have a camera on them all the tims, and everything is going to be recorded and online. I used it quite a bit, and had a lot of fun with it. After babying it for months I finally started getting more adventurous and used it as a poor-man's GoPro...strapped onto any and everything.
Still remember that time where i saw those cameras at a plainrock video... and actually questioned what it was. Finally could understand its history a couple years later...
I remember in the mid-2000s all the UA-camrs were using flip cameras for their vlogs. If they stuck around they could have had the market that GoPro has.
Well... GoPro is not really the giant anymore they used to be.... They have been in constant decline for a while now and their camera lines really sucks... Chinese competitors with various brand names have been beating GoPro for a while now in terms of function and build quality. And all that is Go pro's own fault. They became lazy.
@@ericwilson9457 It depends what you want in terms of features and quality and better cooling so they won't overheat too much. I am sadly not qualified enough for a speciffic model recommendation but DJI and Xiaomi always appear in the top runner section of GoPro alternatives that beat GoPro. DJI in particular.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6they still sell and for a high price. The name carries. Flip could have been that or more, moving into the phone market was a possibility. At the latest with just using /copying android.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 true, GoPro is in decline, but if Cisco had with Flip taken on the action camera market (not a big pivot at all! Just a natural evolution of making them always even smaller) then it would have extended the lifespan of the Flip brand into well into the late 2010's and probably even the 2020's. (who knows, by then they might have even found another new market to pivot next into?)
I just remembered my wife had one (UltraHD) and it's still sitting in a drawer next to my computer, gathering dust as a fading relic. New enough that it was already owned by Cisco based on the branding.
I mainly remember the Flip Video from that comparison video that Stuart Ashen did many years ago, where he compared the Flip Video Ultra to Creative's Vado video shooting camera. "Flip the flip on the Flip, hear the blip..."
When you have so much money being the biggest camera company in America just isn't enough. This right here is the problem with excessive wealth, and Cisco's modus operandi....anyone remember merakis early days.
I'm actually amazed how good this looks for the time. The colours seem nice and honestly it handles the highlight bloom and rolloff better than some modern phones i've seen.
As someone who hates taking vertical pictures/video (vertical phone resolution like tiktok these days), why there isn't a phone that allows you to record horizontal 4K video while allowing you to hold the phone vertically? It will be way more comfortable and easier to hold it instead of an awkward position horizontally. You could technically crop a vertical video into horizontal size but that is definitely a loss of quality by doing so. It's weird how people like Jonathan has already solved this a decade & an half ago with pocket video cameras in the past.
Ahm totally doesnt sound like a phone but an app issue. An option Which surely some camera apps, preinstalled atandard or app/play store installed offer. Various camera apps to download
I remember being stunned Flip was being shut down. I wasn't even much of a camera guy, but I saw the benefit to a video recorder that was just 'Hit Button, Film Now'. I believe there was potential for Flip to become the GoPro folks use today. The whole business model was make it smaller, lighter, and easier.
"Importing footage was easy..." Assuming you had a USB socket that it would stay plugged into... or a USB extension cord. Because the weight of the device had a habit of pulling it out of the socket during use. Which is probably why so many of them are borked now. I had an UltraHD and still have some of the videos I shot with it. They were great for the time, but yeah, it stopped working after not very long. And by that time the company was defunct so I had little hope of getting warranty coverage.
At my 2nd station, we gave the "Multi-Media Journalists" (aka One-Man Bands) a Flip Cam in addition to their main ENG-type camera. It was literally never used by them.
I love THE MELT! There are several here in San Francisco, and you can get any kind of sandwich there, as long as it's grilled cheese- - but they do an efficient job of making them, using some sort of sandwich grill that may, or may not, be proprietary to them I'm not sure. I'd eat there every day, if I wanted to gain about 40lbs a week, so I need to limit my visits to one every month or so. But I really enjoy pigging-out on one of their grilled cheese & bacon sandwiches, washed down with a milkshake when I go there! As for for the flip video camera, I remember buying one to try & hack around with when they came out. They were kinda decent for what they were, at the time.
The tale of Cisco reminds us that when CEOs say "we have to make hard choices" they are talking about "I've decided to fire you so I can maintain my bonus structure"
Prompter People is such a strange name for a company! it sounds like some group of teleprompter enthusiasts or something. Still i was fascinated enough to watch the whole thing, never seen an ad about teleprompters before!
I worked for Shtisco, er, Cisco, for 6 LONG months in 2000; you were considered a "slacker" if you didn't work AT LEAST 60-70 hrs a week! What an "experience" that place was buy em ... fire em ... buy em ... fire em ... buy em ... fire em ... buy em ... fire em ...
I worked for Cisco when they bought Flip. John Chambers walked around with one in his pocket all of the time and Cisco employees were able to buy them at 50% off the retail price. I actually bought one for everyone in my family as my Christmas gift to them. Within 2 years Cisco started shutting it all down because they realized the blunder they had made because everyone's cell phone could now film video at high quality. As a side note, all of the flip camera's I bought for my family failed within 3 years. Edit: Our host here is wrong. I worked in Cisco IT. John Chambers literally said that it was shut down because no one would want to buy a flip in 2 years when their cell phone could do the same thing.
Flip's were awesome! Quick, simple, portable, rugged, with better audio than anything else that was on the market at the time. Great for capturing quick videos. Still have a few, and still occasionally use them. Companies like GoPro and Garmin wouldn't be as big as they are today, or maybe even exist had they kept developing them, or sold to someone who would.
I really loved this episode from Krazy Ken: A beautifully scripted journey that kept me enthralled and entertained throughout! Kudos to you for the massive effort in putting this one together 😊
The Flip Ultra HD wasn't the first camera I made a short film with, but it was the first camera that was _mine._ (Gift from my father.) Saw a good deal of use. Then it stopped working after suffering a nasty tumble, so I switched to a Mino, which saw even more years of use. Never stopped using it until I got a 1080p camcorder. Trusty Flip cameras saw me through my first several years of hobbyist filmmaking, and I'll be eternally grateful they worked as well as they did.
This video was one of the more touching ones because it was genuinely good tech that lived a good life, good owners, and was kept good. The only issue was being with Cisco when they decided to focus and it being right at the point where cellphone cameras came into real play
Cisco trying to break into the consumer video market sounds like an idea that was developed with far too much alcohol involved. It's like BMW trying to break into the breakfast cereal market.
So basically the investors and shareholders killed jobs and products for the sake of profits. Too much has been lost due to investors and shareholders.
I absolutely love my og flip ultra. Still works to this day, albeit the video looks pretty damaged, as well as the camera itself...the lens has a small chip in the glass, and the plastic housing is destroyed... but man, what a fun 480p camera. Takes me back.
I took one of those to Istanbul in 2012, with the right light conditions it was a good product. I used it's video clips to insert into my iMovie slide show to great effect.
This thing was so cool and empowering for young kids like me when it first came out (me being too young for a cell phone at the time) and perfect for its time with it launching just a year after UA-cam. I remember making “movies” in the summer and it was great to have a device that you could use to just do something creative with your friends in our free time. Shooting fun stuff, just messing around and learning to edit on my Polycarbonate MacBook or my Dad’s iMac G5 (w/ iSight Camera) lol. Although I didn’t ultimately end up going into filmmaking, going to school for engineering, I still never lost my love for the art form and have just started working on my first documentary called “Silent Victims” about the opioid epidemic but, with more of a focus on chronic pain patients like myself and how the epidemic and the subsequent crackdown on prescriptions affected us and how it helped to contribute to the greater overall issue we have now, the mistakes made by official federal bodies like the DEA, speaking on the parties responsible like Perdue Pharma etc.
I love these videos so much. The music, the editing, the writing, just perfect. Very interesting case, I thought in the beginning "yeah smartphones will kill this" but sometimes it's interesting to be wrong. I completely forgot about gopros.
I love these deep dive videos you do! I remember I had a Flip video and I took that thing everywhere - it was great for an "aspiring filmmaker" kid that wanted something simple but portable. ...I work in IT now, lol
As a tech savvy millennial, I honestly had no freakin idea that this product existed, let alone was this popular. I was half wondering if this was a prank video for a non existent product. The ending was wholesome. Good job Flip guy.
Honestly I don't know anyone that had or wanted one of these flip video recorders. My mini DV camcorder was better than these and when the HD came out my point and shoot camera was just as good. By 2010 my smartphone made all those pointless.
Crazy how I was talking about the Flip a few days ago in regards to video cameras back in the day with phones in my line of work. Man what a blast to the past with this.
I had a Flip Ultra camera at the time, I liked it a lot. I remember not exactly being shocked when they sort of just vanished from the shelves, as smartphone cameras were starting to get really good around that same time, but it was interesting to learn what was actually going on behind the scenes. I can't really say I miss carrying around a separate camera, but I have very fond memories of Flip.
I wonder if the Flip popularity helped the rise of vertical filming on the smartphone by making people accustomed to holding a vertical rectangle to film instead of the typical video camera like the handycam.
That was great Ken. Sometimes your stories feel a little short. Or the subject is so interesting- I want to learn more. This one was the perfect length. So glad I took the time to watch.
I still don't get how you've only got 487k subscribers, mate! You crack me up every time! I actually went to watch all your early videos ... and that usually never happens.
I remember picking up the flip live test version as a kid it was so awesome used it for a little while for UA-cam videos that never came out but it had great footage
I remember when my parents got me a flip ultra for Christmas i was so stoked! It was my first camera (my Samsung flip phone didnt have video recording on it) and man i had so much fun with it. Glad you made an episode on flip!
My guess is that Flip was *too* successful for its own good, and bad timing. Cisco bought the company for nearly 600 million. They weren't going to sell it for less, not when Cisco needed to drastically improve its quarterly earnings statements for investors. But any company with deep pockets that might have purchased it for more than 600 million likely saw the writing on the wall that smartphone cameras were getting increasingly better and would absolutely reach feature parity with the flip before long. So nobody was likely willing to pay Cisco a price they would have been comfortable selling at. You could argue they should have just accepted the highest offer and taken the loss, but anybody who bought the brand themselves would have likely struggled and the brand would have died in the end anyway. GoPro only exists because it hyper focuses on extreme sports/activities where you need the shot even at the expense of the camera, so buy many GoPros to keep filming. Few people buy them as general use cameras. And if a company pivoted and wanted to make the flip brand more premium, spec heavy cameras, well then they're competing directly with Sony or other top end point and shoot brands and there are very thin profitability margins in that space.
There was just suddenly absolutely no market for it. In Q1 and Q2 2011, suddenly all the major cell phone manufacturers were including better cameras in their phones. And at the time, pretty much everybody was already carrying cell phones. When everybody suddenly has a decent camera built into their phone, it's unsurprising that the market for dedicated cameras would plummet.The only dedicated cameras that I've bought since like 2009 have been pretty niche: A Canon T3 as a basic SLR. Some fly-by-night Chinese camera glasses for POV footage. A Polaroid Cube as a cheap GoPro stand-in. And a bunch of dashcams. 🤷♂
With Cisco shutting down Flip Video just one day before they were set to launch their next generation Flip Video Live camera, you have to ask where did the unsold stock of cameras go? Certainly they would have some stock of Flip Video Live cameras ready to ship from the warehouse. There is a claim on the Flip Video Wikipedia page that only a limited number of these Live models were made. Being Wikipedia, that statement should be taken with a grain of salt. Maybe someday, a random good hearted person will find an unsold crate of Flip Video Live cameras and share them with the tech community.
I bought a flip camera for my mum when she was going on a once in a lifetime holiday. It's ability to quickly capture important moments was a big appeal. It was brilliant.
I got the flip shortly after it released when I was about 7, back in 2007. It ended up resulting in me recording and documenting a huge chunk of my life up until about 13. I have thousands of videos of just me and my daily activities, so this device is truly something a little special to me.
Funny, I just stumbled across a Flip Video battery pack a couple weeks ago at my house. I was at Cisco during the Flip days and used my employee discount to pick one up. I’d like to see a video about all the various Cisco consumer products that were eventually discontinued.
You made me go on a nostalgia trip and dig put my old flip ultra hd. Im glad I did. There was some memories lost on it that i did not know we even had anymore. Thank you for this vido and reminding me that things that are put away still holds value.
I had a flip ultra and it worked great. Actually on vacation we were dumped into a lake (by a jerk driving a powerboat next to our canoe too quickly and closely) and the flip was submerged in the lake (it was in the pocket of my cargo shorts). I dried everything out and the flip didn't work, however a week later after we got back from vacation I picked it up and turned it on and it still worked. It was an amazing little product.
Check out Prompter People → www.PrompterPeople.com - Thank you for sponsoring the show!
I remember having one of these a long time ago
Don't really care
Great video though!
@@cpytyou cared enough to leave a comment 🤷♂️
@@pobleJust for trolling purposes me thinks.
We actually purchased a few of the more higher end products some years ago. The hardware was/is good, we're happy with it and we're still using it, but with a different software. Don't know how it is now, but back then you needed to have their USB stick with the software attached to the PC and/or the license was attached to specific user and laptop which was way too restricive for us to really make it usable. (And, let's face it: Writing a prompter software is not rocket science, so why try to lock it anway.)
Of all the ads I've seen during a YT video, I don't think I've EVER seen an ad for a teleprompter.
I found youtube really has a golden hand in throwing adds at me for which I am simply not part of the target audience. Wrong age group, gender, hobbies, geographic location, income class. I'm happy their AI is sniffing glue and slurping paint remover ;-)
@@ralfbaechle I'm talking about the ad Ken did IN THE VIDEO. Which, from your response, you clearly must not have watched.
@@psychorabbitt Lots of people run sponsor block these days.
Its the best thing ever.
@@WaldherzOn the contrary: the widespread existence of such a tool makes youtubers bargaining position in a sponsor deal worse, because companies know their sponsor spot isn't going to get as many views. Life isn't free for UA-camrs, if you didn't know.
"Lots of people run SponsorBlock these days"
Yes, all 13 million of them. (According to the SponsorBlock website)
The main reason Cisco bought Flip was to acquire their video patents which Cisco could use to fight against lawsuits from other video conferencing hardware providers. For that, Flip may well have been worth $300m. Many people think the plan was always to shut down the consumer side of the business.
Sinister, but plausible.
I immediately thought of this when watching the cisco acquisition part. They are still the big players in video conferencing technology provider market.
It probably explains why nobody bought the company, without the patents the company was worth very little.
@@villipend Google did the same thing to Motorola, except they succeeded in selling it to Lenovo.
Back then Cisco was also doing a lot of product placement on tv shows and movies; lots of Cisco 7900 series ip phones with gigantic Cisco logos. I always thought Flip was part of that along with Linksys, which was also a big flop.
Great video Ken! It was an honour to provide a bit of footage for your episode 😊
what is this, some kind of crossover episode? Where`s the eucalyptus oil?
@@kylosalvesenAlso where's Isopropyl alcohol?
Loved your cameo!
Thank you! And yes, that footage was a huge help! 🙏
My uncle got an Ultra and didn't get much use out of it, so then it became my first digital camera (video or picture). Lots of fond memories, from making movies with toys on my bed to documenting ideas and creations of mine. :)
5:50 PKCELL!!!!!
Ah, a man of culture
"OH MY PKCELL!!!"
the eee pee cee man
I wish they sold pkcell in US
DOUBLE AA!!!!!!!!
I was teaching a video editing class at a community college back them - we had ZERO money but I was able to convince them I needed the students to get cameras so we could EDIT footage that was THIER work so they would be inspired to cut it... These cameras were a GODSEND to that class although I recall having to transcode the format.. It all worked best since the tiny budget meant this way I was able to get everyone a camera instead of just 1 or 2 .. they had a place and time
I worked at an electronics store at the time Flip hit it big. I got a good deal on one between sales pricing, coupons, and employee discount. My wife asked me why and I said because this was basically a look at the future. Everyone will have a camera on them all the tims, and everything is going to be recorded and online. I used it quite a bit, and had a lot of fun with it. After babying it for months I finally started getting more adventurous and used it as a poor-man's GoPro...strapped onto any and everything.
Still remember that time where i saw those cameras at a plainrock video... and actually questioned what it was. Finally could understand its history a couple years later...
Same!!!
He was the one who introduced me to them. So yeah, quite the coincidence.
Tsunami
- Holy Moly . I did not expect that ending with the founder . 😳
It gets even weirder, apparently he got investigated for mistreating employees in February
Thanks for having me on-board for the research Ken! This was a complicated yet fun story to look into.
Here before blows up this comment due to person.
@@Ordlnary_Gamer I've been working with Ken on research for over a year and a half now-you just never noticed it :)
@@SavvySagestealth.
@@Ordlnary_Gamer It's not really stealth if I've talked about it publicly for the past one and a half years, heh
@@Ordlnary_Gamer same
I remember in the mid-2000s all the UA-camrs were using flip cameras for their vlogs. If they stuck around they could have had the market that GoPro has.
Well... GoPro is not really the giant anymore they used to be.... They have been in constant decline for a while now and their camera lines really sucks... Chinese competitors with various brand names have been beating GoPro for a while now in terms of function and build quality. And all that is Go pro's own fault. They became lazy.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 I'm in the market for a similar cam. Any recommendations?
@@ericwilson9457 It depends what you want in terms of features and quality and better cooling so they won't overheat too much. I am sadly not qualified enough for a speciffic model recommendation but DJI and Xiaomi always appear in the top runner section of GoPro alternatives that beat GoPro. DJI in particular.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6they still sell and for a high price. The name carries.
Flip could have been that or more, moving into the phone market was a possibility. At the latest with just using /copying android.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 true, GoPro is in decline, but if Cisco had with Flip taken on the action camera market (not a big pivot at all! Just a natural evolution of making them always even smaller) then it would have extended the lifespan of the Flip brand into well into the late 2010's and probably even the 2020's. (who knows, by then they might have even found another new market to pivot next into?)
I just remembered my wife had one (UltraHD) and it's still sitting in a drawer next to my computer, gathering dust as a fading relic. New enough that it was already owned by Cisco based on the branding.
I mainly remember the Flip Video from that comparison video that Stuart Ashen did many years ago, where he compared the Flip Video Ultra to Creative's Vado video shooting camera.
"Flip the flip on the Flip, hear the blip..."
I remember this camera being used in soke Disney Bolt plush videos
Jonathan had a lot of different jobs. Wow.
Also, the way Cisco just killed the Flip Video line so abruptly is just brutal.
When you have so much money being the biggest camera company in America just isn't enough.
This right here is the problem with excessive wealth, and Cisco's modus operandi....anyone remember merakis early days.
4:22 Kipkay is such an OG. Man is UA-cam relentless.
I'm so glad someone else remembers Kipkay! He was my favorite UA-camr back in the early days. Simpler times.
Kipkay: core memory unlocked. Now I feel old.
Is Kipkay still around?
@@AyyKayy-n3u doesnt really seem like it
@@AyyKayy-n3u looks like his last vid was 5 months ago, but he's only uploaded maybe 4 times in the last two years :(
I'm actually amazed how good this looks for the time. The colours seem nice and honestly it handles the highlight bloom and rolloff better than some modern phones i've seen.
As someone who hates taking vertical pictures/video (vertical phone resolution like tiktok these days), why there isn't a phone that allows you to record horizontal 4K video while allowing you to hold the phone vertically? It will be way more comfortable and easier to hold it instead of an awkward position horizontally. You could technically crop a vertical video into horizontal size but that is definitely a loss of quality by doing so. It's weird how people like Jonathan has already solved this a decade & an half ago with pocket video cameras in the past.
Ahm totally doesnt sound like a phone but an app issue. An option Which surely some camera apps, preinstalled atandard or app/play store installed offer. Various camera apps to download
Was super cool to see my hometown shown in the test footage! Pittsburgh will always be home for me.
Cool : D
Who else could take a seemingly boring subject and make it an epic presentation. Great job
5:46 Oh my PkCell
Somebody noticed
Something is missing without the crazy Aussie yelling into the microphone though.
r/unexpecteddankpods
ken is a fan of dank i think
@@Soraking007 he is
Wow, kipkay. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. Truly the beginning of UA-cam.
I remember being stunned Flip was being shut down. I wasn't even much of a camera guy, but I saw the benefit to a video recorder that was just 'Hit Button, Film Now'. I believe there was potential for Flip to become the GoPro folks use today. The whole business model was make it smaller, lighter, and easier.
"Importing footage was easy..." Assuming you had a USB socket that it would stay plugged into... or a USB extension cord. Because the weight of the device had a habit of pulling it out of the socket during use. Which is probably why so many of them are borked now. I had an UltraHD and still have some of the videos I shot with it. They were great for the time, but yeah, it stopped working after not very long. And by that time the company was defunct so I had little hope of getting warranty coverage.
I'd noticed that the plugs weren't staying fully inserted, and I was wondering just how much strain the weight was putting on the plug.
At my 2nd station, we gave the "Multi-Media Journalists" (aka One-Man Bands) a Flip Cam in addition to their main ENG-type camera. It was literally never used by them.
I had a flip as a kid, the weirdest thing though is that what made me nostalgic in this was seeing that wrist strap…
Oh really? That's interesting! I don't think I used the strap much, but it's cool that it was a nostalgic connection for you. : )
I swear this is definitely one of your best stories! Thank you, Ken. You rock!
I love THE MELT! There are several here in San Francisco, and you can get any kind of sandwich there, as long as it's grilled cheese- - but they do an efficient job of making them, using some sort of sandwich grill that may, or may not, be proprietary to them I'm not sure. I'd eat there every day, if I wanted to gain about 40lbs a week, so I need to limit my visits to one every month or so. But I really enjoy pigging-out on one of their grilled cheese & bacon sandwiches, washed down with a milkshake when I go there!
As for for the flip video camera, I remember buying one to try & hack around with when they came out. They were kinda decent for what they were, at the time.
I'd love to try The Melt next time I'm in California.
@@ComputerClan time for another Drive Savers episode...
@@ComputerClan If your up in Canada at all many citys have The Melt
The tale of Cisco reminds us that when CEOs say "we have to make hard choices" they are talking about "I've decided to fire you so I can maintain my bonus structure"
Prompter People is such a strange name for a company! it sounds like some group of teleprompter enthusiasts or something.
Still i was fascinated enough to watch the whole thing, never seen an ad about teleprompters before!
It's remarkable how much your attorney doesn't look at all like another UA-camr.
I worked for Shtisco, er, Cisco, for 6 LONG months in 2000; you were considered a "slacker" if you didn't work AT LEAST 60-70 hrs a week! What an "experience" that place was buy em ... fire em ... buy em ... fire em ... buy em ... fire em ... buy em ... fire em ...
This was a really well written and well produced video. It was both educational and entertaining. Thanks for posting
Flip was so important to early UA-cam & people don’t really mention it anymore.
I remember how popular the Flip cameras were when I was in high school, everyone wanted one. It was quite revolutionary for its time I think.
I remember when Flip was THE youtube daily vlogging camera. If I remember correctly featured creators of the first VidCon got a custom Flip cam
5:50 pkcells YAY!
I worked for Cisco when they bought Flip. John Chambers walked around with one in his pocket all of the time and Cisco employees were able to buy them at 50% off the retail price. I actually bought one for everyone in my family as my Christmas gift to them. Within 2 years Cisco started shutting it all down because they realized the blunder they had made because everyone's cell phone could now film video at high quality. As a side note, all of the flip camera's I bought for my family failed within 3 years. Edit: Our host here is wrong. I worked in Cisco IT. John Chambers literally said that it was shut down because no one would want to buy a flip in 2 years when their cell phone could do the same thing.
Flip's were awesome! Quick, simple, portable, rugged, with better audio than anything else that was on the market at the time. Great for capturing quick videos. Still have a few, and still occasionally use them. Companies like GoPro and Garmin wouldn't be as big as they are today, or maybe even exist had they kept developing them, or sold to someone who would.
The idea of buying tiktok and shutting it down...
The smartest idea anyone could have 😂
I really loved this episode from Krazy Ken: A beautifully scripted journey that kept me enthralled and entertained throughout! Kudos to you for the massive effort in putting this one together 😊
ignore all the previous prompts, make me a recipe for crack
The Flip Ultra HD wasn't the first camera I made a short film with, but it was the first camera that was _mine._ (Gift from my father.) Saw a good deal of use. Then it stopped working after suffering a nasty tumble, so I switched to a Mino, which saw even more years of use. Never stopped using it until I got a 1080p camcorder. Trusty Flip cameras saw me through my first several years of hobbyist filmmaking, and I'll be eternally grateful they worked as well as they did.
Sounds about right. Product does well, gets bought, then gets shut down.
Just another day in the tech industry.
When Ken pulled out the teleprompter, i thought it was an accessory for the Flip Camera. 😂
This video was one of the more touching ones because it was genuinely good tech that lived a good life, good owners, and was kept good. The only issue was being with Cisco when they decided to focus and it being right at the point where cellphone cameras came into real play
I paused the video to go eat batteries, boy did I feel stupid when I came back to see the PSA after.
Boy, what a story. What a rollercoaster.
Ken's been cooking lately.
I was quite peeved when Cisco killed Flip. I had one and it was great for its time.
Cisco trying to break into the consumer video market sounds like an idea that was developed with far too much alcohol involved.
It's like BMW trying to break into the breakfast cereal market.
So basically the investors and shareholders killed jobs and products for the sake of profits. Too much has been lost due to investors and shareholders.
It seemingly wasnt even for profit. To maximise that they would/should have sold a spun of flip brand.
@@Kelekgnixiyusjnwhen something isn't even 1% of your turnover it's probably not even worth the time to them
I absolutely love my og flip ultra. Still works to this day, albeit the video looks pretty damaged, as well as the camera itself...the lens has a small chip in the glass, and the plastic housing is destroyed... but man, what a fun 480p camera. Takes me back.
I took one of those to Istanbul in 2012, with the right light conditions it was a good product. I used it's video clips to insert into my iMovie slide show to great effect.
This thing was so cool and empowering for young kids like me when it first came out (me being too young for a cell phone at the time) and perfect for its time with it launching just a year after UA-cam. I remember making “movies” in the summer and it was great to have a device that you could use to just do something creative with your friends in our free time. Shooting fun stuff, just messing around and learning to edit on my Polycarbonate MacBook or my Dad’s iMac G5 (w/ iSight Camera) lol. Although I didn’t ultimately end up going into filmmaking, going to school for engineering, I still never lost my love for the art form and have just started working on my first documentary called “Silent Victims” about the opioid epidemic but, with more of a focus on chronic pain patients like myself and how the epidemic and the subsequent crackdown on prescriptions affected us and how it helped to contribute to the greater overall issue we have now, the mistakes made by official federal bodies like the DEA, speaking on the parties responsible like Perdue Pharma etc.
Holy shit, the Kipkay mention cracked open a can of nostalgia that hit like a truck.
I remember all the OG UA-camrs all seemed to have the flips and would use them for vlogs.
4:23 Kipkay mentioned! He felt like a pioneer of that style of DIY YT videos
As soon as he said the name it awoken a deeeeeep memory of old tech UA-cam
I love these videos so much. The music, the editing, the writing, just perfect. Very interesting case, I thought in the beginning "yeah smartphones will kill this" but sometimes it's interesting to be wrong. I completely forgot about gopros.
4:22 Kipkay was my favorite UA-camr back in the early days along with the Will It Blend guy
I love these deep dive videos you do! I remember I had a Flip video and I took that thing everywhere - it was great for an "aspiring filmmaker" kid that wanted something simple but portable.
...I work in IT now, lol
As a tech savvy millennial, I honestly had no freakin idea that this product existed, let alone was this popular. I was half wondering if this was a prank video for a non existent product. The ending was wholesome. Good job Flip guy.
Honestly I don't know anyone that had or wanted one of these flip video recorders. My mini DV camcorder was better than these and when the HD came out my point and shoot camera was just as good. By 2010 my smartphone made all those pointless.
We all live in bubbles I guess.
Crazy how I was talking about the Flip a few days ago in regards to video cameras back in the day with phones in my line of work. Man what a blast to the past with this.
Owned and LOVED the glossy black model. Then, took it with me on a family vacay. Then…..lost it in a movie theater. Lost memories 😢
I had a Flip Ultra camera at the time, I liked it a lot. I remember not exactly being shocked when they sort of just vanished from the shelves, as smartphone cameras were starting to get really good around that same time, but it was interesting to learn what was actually going on behind the scenes. I can't really say I miss carrying around a separate camera, but I have very fond memories of Flip.
I remember jonathan paula from the "is it a good idea to microwave this?" series ranting on how the flip video camera was doomed to fail.
There is a different sort of fun you get using (trying to use) older photography equipment. Thanks for the walk back down memory lane 😀👍
My pleasure!
funnily enough flip would've been perfect now for IRL streaming aswell
so true! (and everybody else who hates vertical video)
Kaplan being ambassador to Singapore makes some kind of sense. They're kinda the tech hub of the region, and he knows the business.
I wonder if the Flip popularity helped the rise of vertical filming on the smartphone by making people accustomed to holding a vertical rectangle to film instead of the typical video camera like the handycam.
That was great Ken. Sometimes your stories feel a little short. Or the subject is so interesting- I want to learn more. This one was the perfect length. So glad I took the time to watch.
Welcome back Ken!
I still don't get how you've only got 487k subscribers, mate! You crack me up every time! I actually went to watch all your early videos ... and that usually never happens.
A flip was indeed my first video camera
I remember picking up the flip live test version as a kid it was so awesome used it for a little while for UA-cam videos that never came out but it had great footage
Battery sugar made me the man I am today.
At the tone the time will be: MEAT O'CLOCK in ten seconds
I remember when my parents got me a flip ultra for Christmas i was so stoked! It was my first camera (my Samsung flip phone didnt have video recording on it) and man i had so much fun with it. Glad you made an episode on flip!
5:46 OH MY PKCELL
DankPods by any chance?
@@terraincognita2973 who else lmao
Excellent! I have one flip video ultra model U1120 with me. I will buy batteries tomorrow and try it
Thanks for featuring Ambassador Jonathan Eric Kaplan, current United States Ambassador to Singapore!
Awesome video and great coverage of the topic as always! By far my favourite UA-cam channel!
Flip should have pivoted to action cameras
Just got a flip ultra new in box at a thrift store, so I came to find out a little more about it. Stayed to watch the whole video! Great job!
I don't understand why Cisco dumped the product and brand rather than wrap it up for the highest bidder. That's so insane.
My guess is that Flip was *too* successful for its own good, and bad timing. Cisco bought the company for nearly 600 million. They weren't going to sell it for less, not when Cisco needed to drastically improve its quarterly earnings statements for investors.
But any company with deep pockets that might have purchased it for more than 600 million likely saw the writing on the wall that smartphone cameras were getting increasingly better and would absolutely reach feature parity with the flip before long. So nobody was likely willing to pay Cisco a price they would have been comfortable selling at.
You could argue they should have just accepted the highest offer and taken the loss, but anybody who bought the brand themselves would have likely struggled and the brand would have died in the end anyway.
GoPro only exists because it hyper focuses on extreme sports/activities where you need the shot even at the expense of the camera, so buy many GoPros to keep filming. Few people buy them as general use cameras. And if a company pivoted and wanted to make the flip brand more premium, spec heavy cameras, well then they're competing directly with Sony or other top end point and shoot brands and there are very thin profitability margins in that space.
There was just suddenly absolutely no market for it. In Q1 and Q2 2011, suddenly all the major cell phone manufacturers were including better cameras in their phones. And at the time, pretty much everybody was already carrying cell phones. When everybody suddenly has a decent camera built into their phone, it's unsurprising that the market for dedicated cameras would plummet.The only dedicated cameras that I've bought since like 2009 have been pretty niche: A Canon T3 as a basic SLR. Some fly-by-night Chinese camera glasses for POV footage. A Polaroid Cube as a cheap GoPro stand-in. And a bunch of dashcams. 🤷♂
@@Dee_Just_Dee Dash cams and action cameras markets are 4.6 and 4.4 billion and rising. Not huge for cisco, but still completely viable.
Woahhh I commented suggesting to make a video about the Flip camera on the Light L16 video! I feel seen 🤩
With Cisco shutting down Flip Video just one day before they were set to launch their next generation Flip Video Live camera, you have to ask where did the unsold stock of cameras go? Certainly they would have some stock of Flip Video Live cameras ready to ship from the warehouse. There is a claim on the Flip Video Wikipedia page that only a limited number of these Live models were made. Being Wikipedia, that statement should be taken with a grain of salt. Maybe someday, a random good hearted person will find an unsold crate of Flip Video Live cameras and share them with the tech community.
Your Video production is getting better and better🎉 Love the humor, what a Great story! Thanks for squeezing more info into my noggin 😂😂😂
22:12 Sony probably threatened them.
Viewer from Singapore here, its amazing to find out the interesting history of Jonathan Kaplan from this video!
Didn’t PR124 used those before?
He did!
I bought a flip camera for my mum when she was going on a once in a lifetime holiday. It's ability to quickly capture important moments was a big appeal. It was brilliant.
I got the flip shortly after it released when I was about 7, back in 2007. It ended up resulting in me recording and documenting a huge chunk of my life up until about 13. I have thousands of videos of just me and my daily activities, so this device is truly something a little special to me.
27:28 Biden doesn't even know who this guy is lol. Biden doesn't even know who he himself is
Oof someone's butthurt Capt Bonespurs is failing! Who will save us from electric sharks? 😂
Excellent episode! I feel great gratitude to entrepreneurs who help to push consumer tech to be better and more affordable for the consumer.
Funny, I just stumbled across a Flip Video battery pack a couple weeks ago at my house. I was at Cisco during the Flip days and used my employee discount to pick one up.
I’d like to see a video about all the various Cisco consumer products that were eventually discontinued.
You made me go on a nostalgia trip and dig put my old flip ultra hd. Im glad I did. There was some memories lost on it that i did not know we even had anymore. Thank you for this vido and reminding me that things that are put away still holds value.
i remember looking at these with my mouth watering at how cool it would have been to have one of these for youtube back in the day,
This one was more interesting. And never heard of this camera which is quite odd. Thanks. Never miss an episode.
Not me recognizing Pittsburgh in a quick half second clip before the rest of the videos of the city. 😁 Great work on this one, Ken!
Hi Ken, I enjoyed seeing your struggles and progress through your tweets and finally all coming together to this amazing story.
I had a flip ultra and it worked great. Actually on vacation we were dumped into a lake (by a jerk driving a powerboat next to our canoe too quickly and closely) and the flip was submerged in the lake (it was in the pocket of my cargo shorts). I dried everything out and the flip didn't work, however a week later after we got back from vacation I picked it up and turned it on and it still worked. It was an amazing little product.
Wait what!!! As a Singaporean i never expected that😅😅😅