Cisco to Can Flip Video Line in Restructuring Move

Despite new products and even a proprietary accessory port announced last year, with smartphones and tablets that can record video, some of them at a higher resolution, Cisco has thrown in the towel, and decided to end its line of Flip Video camcorders.

Cisco announced a number of other moves in a press release about a restructuring of its consumer business. However, the part that will catch the eye of many consumers will be the one line about Flip Video where Cisco says it will "Close down its Flip business and support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan."

At this point, it is unclear what that means. The port addition means that third-parties have created some devices to support the Flip camcorders; those are likely at least some of the partners that Cisco will have to support, as well as retailers and businesses. Meanwhile, the camcorders themselves will continue to function for years, but they will rapidly fall behind other technology, and the software required to download videos to computers will eventually lose support.

As of Wednesday morning, there was no change on the Flip website. At one time, the Flip Video cameras topped the standalone camcorder rankings. It's possible they still are. However, with more end users moving toward using their smartphones for video, and burying their Flips in their backpacks, the writing for this move was on the wall.

Additionally, it was always a strange pairing, Cisco and Flip. That brings up yet another question: can Cisco, instead of eliminating the line, sell the Flip line, instead? The fact that the Flip website has not changed might point to this. The company said 550 jobs will be lost due to the restructuring, but it is unclear how many of those will be Flip employees.