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In an important way, the camcorders that Pure Digital Technologies Inc. unleashed on the consumer electronics market in 2007 – in all, a staggering 2 million-plus of the Flip brand devices have been sold despite the frosty economic climate – represent a sort of “anti-iPhone” approach.
While Apple Inc.’s watershed iPhone (News - Alert) 3G marks a revolution in communications and the launch of the online App Store has spawned a whole new industry for developers, that same industry has also seen the device become – or strive to become – just about everything that a phone-cum-handheld PC possibly can: business tool, VoIP phone, chess opponent, social networking destination, insult generator, stereo, GPS system . . .
You get the idea.
It’s a wonderful invention. As one telecom veteran this week characterized the iPhone’s overall market disruption: “We have seen more innovation in mobile handset technology in the last 18 months than we’ve seen in the PC industry in the last 15 years.”
All true. And yet it’s also refreshing to hear someone say: “We have a product that does this one thing extraordinary well, and, whatever else happens, we’re going to keep doing it better and better.”
That’s essentially what Scott Kabat, Pure Digital’s director of marketing, told us during in an interview in advance of today’s launch of the new, more robust Flip Ultra line of the cell phone-size camcorders (see our full product review).
It would be foolish for Pure Digital to ignore thoughts of features such as phone capability or WiFi (News - Alert) connectivity, Kabat concedes, but the specifics of such a move – the how, whether and, if so, when – are secondary to the company’s desire to deliver on simplicity, quality and affordability.
“To be honest, the biggest temptation is just to get caught up in ‘feature creep,’ ” Kabat told us. “It’s so easy to start layering in and take away the core things that the Flip is all about, the reasons why it’s not just another brand. We want it to be friendly and approachable. There’s a pretty disciplined process to adding new technology.”
And the company seems to have that process down. Its new Ultra line, which is priced at $150 for the standard definition model (640 x 480 video resolution) and $200 for the high-definition model (1280 x 720), have more memory, a larger screen and TV outputs for HDMI widescreen (HD model) and SD composite video (SD model). The devices can be charged through a built-in USB drive as well as by AA batteries. They join a product family that includes the higher-end, somewhat sleeker Flip Mino brand ($230 HD, $180 SD) and original Flip Video product ($130).
Naturally, with all its success, the industry has taken notice of San Francisco-based Pure Digital. The world’s largest maker of computer networking gear, Cisco Systems Inc., is seeking to acquire the company for $590 million.
Cisco’s vice president of corporate business development, Charles Carmel (News - Alert), recently told us that the IT bellwether sees the acquisition as part of its strategy to serve the “media-enabled home,” but he was, like Kabat, quiet on the prospect of adding things like 3G connectivity.
For his part, Kabat told us that Cisco (News - Alert) – with its international reach – will only help the Flip brand grow bigger, and do that faster than the company could on its own.
“We’re excited about the prospect (of the acquisition), and the obvious synergies, where they have immediate value, is that they are truly a global business,” Kabat said. “We can start to expand overseas. We’re in Canada and the United Kingdom now, but beyond that we have not launched internationally.”
And why wouldn’t the Flip line sell as well around the world as it does in these English-speaking nations? Two of the product’s best features – its built-in USB drive and a software program that allows users to create mini-movies – already have made the camcorders a favorite among social networking and video sites such as YouTube (News - Alert), Facebook and MySpace.
So while Pure Digital would be making a mistake if it wasn’t paying careful attention to convergence trends, Kabat says, the company also feels that its video quality is better than that offered as yet another feature on cell phones and smartphones.
He’s right, and – as he told us – Pure Digital’s Flip family doesn’t really require anything beyond the compact device itself in order for a user to create a movie or several mini-movies.
“One of the ways that we really try to stay out ahead of the competition is by delivering this end-to-end product, and we focus very much on that product,” Kabat told us. “If you came to our office you’d be introduced first of all to a very big engineering team, with as many software people as hardware people.”
Keep up the good work.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.
Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Michael Dinan
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