Cisco Systems purchase of Pure Digital Technologies, manufacturer of the Flip video recorder, is a BIG move and Cisco’s first real push into consumer products. To date, the only people who have actually bought something from Cisco are business and IT people. Consumers have seen Cisco TV commercials promoting corporate video conferencing and the “human network,” but that was really a B2B and investor stock play.  

The Flip, however, is one of the coolest tech products to come along in a while and will finally give Cisco some real purchase in the consumer market. Cisco will evolve the product onto a wireless platform, somehow make it videoconference-able, and take personal video recording to a new level.  The Cisco Flip will be advertised using some serious cash, making ad agencies, media companies and retailers happy. In addition, the increased usage of Flips around the world will send some serious gigs over the net’s backbone routers, Cisco’s bread and butter.

This was a great move by Cisco and one which may catapult the brand into Sony landin 5 to 10 years. Peace!