5 ms·

Flip Founder: People Still Want Single Purpose Devices

4 points by davidedicillo 16y ago

SlipperySlope 16y ago
How come I don't wear a wrist watch? And I can wait to get rid of my plastic credit cards. Device convergence sometimes actually happens - and is good. Sour grapes, in my opinion.
- michaelpinto 16y ago
  Actually Swatch is still doing very well (as well as other brands) — a watch is an fashion accessory as much something with functionality. Flip understood that as brand, and was a notch above what you'd get on a cell phone. That gap has narrowed, but had Cisco invested in the product my bet is that their bet would have paid off. The problem was that Cisco had a larger agenda which didn't match the camera. By the way as digital dominates you'll see a specialty market for analog — everything from vinyl to paper books (just ask any hipster kid).
officemonkey 16y ago
People are willing to pay a premium for a high-end single-purpose device (eg: a Nikon camera or a Sony professional camcorder). But they don't need a cheap single-purpose device. Especially since their smartphone (which they are carrying anyway) is good enough. I bought a Flip camera back in 2008, but it was the first and last one I ever bought. Flip and Cisco's mistake was thinking that the brand would carry the day.
- jamesbritt 16y ago
  But they don't need a cheap single-purpose device. I do. Especially since their smartphone (which they are carrying anyway) is good enough. No it's not. I have a G2, it plays music, movies, yada yada yada. So it would make a usable Mp3 player. Except, because it is a multi-purpose device, the controls for Mp3 playing are intertwingled with controls for taking and making calls, reading mail, launching other apps. That makes it really awkward to use without looking at it. Stuff like pausing or skipping a song is iffy if I try to do it while driving or running. Yeah, I know, I could probably get some special cord or something that gives me tiny controls that are slightly less awkward to use without looking. However, I have a nice Sansa MP3 player. Takes an SD card so I have around 6GB for music on a $50 device. It's really easy to use blindly. In fact, I have about five MP3-player-only devices. One is for audio books. One is for practicing violin. One has white noise to help me sleep. They're cheap and do just what I want them to do. That's a big win.
  - officemonkey 16y ago
    You're right, a single-purpose mp3 player has a lot of utility for many of the reasons you say. * Easy of navigation when exercising/driving. * Cheap enough so you won't cry when it dies. * Cheap enough so you can buy multiple for different purposes. In fact, my favorite MP3 player of all time is a 2nd Generation iPod shuffle. It's lasted for years, it survived going through a washing machine, and it's tiny. OTOH, I'll argue that a good MP3 player isn't a "cheap single-purpose device", it's just a quality single-purpose device that happens to be inexpensive. The price of all MP3 players are so low that the difference between a really "good" one and a really "cheap" one is 20 bucks. You can't say the same thing about still or video cameras. The "cheap" Flip camera has less utility than the camera on my smartphone for one reason only: I always have my smartphone on me. I think stand-alone GPS devices are the next thing that will be obsoleted by smartphones. I don't see TomTom or Garmin being competitive with a smartphone with the same satellite reception and the same maps. If I were Garmin or TomTom I'd start putting all my eggs in the software basket rather than the hardware basket.

4 points by davidedicillo 16y ago

How come I don't wear a wrist watch? And I can wait to get rid of my plastic credit cards. Device convergence sometimes actually happens - and is good. Sour grapes, in my opinion.

michaelpinto 16y ago
Actually Swatch is still doing very well (as well as other brands) — a watch is an fashion accessory as much something with functionality. Flip understood that as brand, and was a notch above what you'd get on a cell phone. That gap has narrowed, but had Cisco invested in the product my bet is that their bet would have paid off. The problem was that Cisco had a larger agenda which didn't match the camera. By the way as digital dominates you'll see a specialty market for analog — everything from vinyl to paper books (just ask any hipster kid).

officemonkey 16y ago

People are willing to pay a premium for a high-end single-purpose device (eg: a Nikon camera or a Sony professional camcorder). But they don't need a cheap single-purpose device. Especially since their smartphone (which they are carrying anyway) is good enough. I bought a Flip camera back in 2008, but it was the first and last one I ever bought. Flip and Cisco's mistake was thinking that the brand would carry the day.

jamesbritt 16y ago
But they don't need a cheap single-purpose device. I do. Especially since their smartphone (which they are carrying anyway) is good enough. No it's not. I have a G2, it plays music, movies, yada yada yada. So it would make a usable Mp3 player. Except, because it is a multi-purpose device, the controls for Mp3 playing are intertwingled with controls for taking and making calls, reading mail, launching other apps. That makes it really awkward to use without looking at it. Stuff like pausing or skipping a song is iffy if I try to do it while driving or running. Yeah, I know, I could probably get some special cord or something that gives me tiny controls that are slightly less awkward to use without looking. However, I have a nice Sansa MP3 player. Takes an SD card so I have around 6GB for music on a $50 device. It's really easy to use blindly. In fact, I have about five MP3-player-only devices. One is for audio books. One is for practicing violin. One has white noise to help me sleep. They're cheap and do just what I want them to do. That's a big win.
- officemonkey 16y ago
  You're right, a single-purpose mp3 player has a lot of utility for many of the reasons you say. * Easy of navigation when exercising/driving. * Cheap enough so you won't cry when it dies. * Cheap enough so you can buy multiple for different purposes. In fact, my favorite MP3 player of all time is a 2nd Generation iPod shuffle. It's lasted for years, it survived going through a washing machine, and it's tiny. OTOH, I'll argue that a good MP3 player isn't a "cheap single-purpose device", it's just a quality single-purpose device that happens to be inexpensive. The price of all MP3 players are so low that the difference between a really "good" one and a really "cheap" one is 20 bucks. You can't say the same thing about still or video cameras. The "cheap" Flip camera has less utility than the camera on my smartphone for one reason only: I always have my smartphone on me. I think stand-alone GPS devices are the next thing that will be obsoleted by smartphones. I don't see TomTom or Garmin being competitive with a smartphone with the same satellite reception and the same maps. If I were Garmin or TomTom I'd start putting all my eggs in the software basket rather than the hardware basket.