Two years after buying the Flip from Pure Digital, Cisco has announced the little camera that could will soon be making videos of the big party in the sky. I was surprised to hear today that the Flip is finished, and after listening to analysis as to why (summary: smart phones with high def video capability make it irrelevant), I felt a pang for the death of a well-designed product. The process by which the Flip became a gizmo renowned for its functional simplicity, which I wrote about in 2009, was a great example of holistic design done right. But truth be told, I had only to look at my own household to predict the fate of the camera; we use our iPhones to take spontaneous video while the Flip sits in the drawer collecting dust.
Read Wired's obituary here.