Comments on: The Flip Mino: A study in market disruption

By: Waterproof Digital Camera Store.com

Waterproof Digital Camera Store.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:25:43 +0000

Any thoughts on the new Nikon Coolpix P90? The 24x optical zoom looks fun.

By: Ivan Croxford

Ivan Croxford — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:26:17 +0000

Yep, the fact that Flip makes it simple to actually do more with video than squint at the small LCD screen on a camcorder is to its great advantage.

It’s going to be interesting to see the knock-on effects of the adoption of low cost camcorders on increased online video usage and bandwidth consumption as sharing becomes as important as shooting video.

(and yes, Hampstead Heath is really beautiful (but bloody cold!) at the moment)

By: Adam Richardson

Adam Richardson — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:34:06 +0000

Ah that brings back memories of visiting the Heath as a child! I always loved the way the house glowed like that in the right light.

The Flip is a great case of taking on products that are “too good” and which as a result have become too big, too complicated, too expensive, too fragile. The large video files created by camcorders is an impediment to sharing. The relatively small files from the Flip are lower quality, but that makes them much easier to do something with. Very few people every edit video off a camcorder (especially those with kids…the target audience of most camcorders…they just don’t have time). So the Flip is perfect for that.

It will be interesting to see whether they can sustain their position and hold off cameraphones and digicams. The key will be in post-capture – the technology for the capture itself will be too widespread.

By: Ivan Croxford

Ivan Croxford — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:50:05 +0000

Good point – is it a case of adding incremental features to a device or focusing on creating a very simple user experience for a specific function? On the Flip, you can take still photos from video, but I wouldn’t want to do that much. Typically on a digital camera the video capability is secondary and isn’t an integrated experience in the way the Flip has tackled it – shoot, transfer, edit, share. I suspect digital cameras and mobile phones are increasingly in the same market space, with the likes of the Flip creating a low end market alternative to mainstream digital camcorders.

By: grell

grell — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:17:41 +0000

This sounds like a very useful product, but I won’t be rushing out to buy one just yet as I already own a pseudo-market disruptor in my ixy digital camera (80 IS) – this great little camera not only takes high quality pics – ideal for anything from family snaps to attempts at being arty – but also has the same point and shoot video function the Flip has. Slap in a big enough memory card and away you go. So here you get two in one – camera and video for around £130. Now all they need to do is build in a phone.