Will the Flip be Flipped by the iPod?
by Braden Kelley
Apple's September 9, 2009 media event came and went with what most might call a whimper. There was no highly anticipated Apple iTablet, and the event served to mostly refresh the iPod line.
Lost in the disappointment over the lack of an Apple tablet computer introduction was a small, but potentially huge change to the iPod Nano.
A lot of other authors have written about how great the Flip video camera is, and how it disrupted the video camera market by introducing a smaller, simpler video camera that was 'good enough' at recording video, but made it much easier to get video onto the PC and onto the Internet. Today at Office Depot I saw an 8gb Flip for $199.
Now, the 8gb iPod Nano is $149.
So the iPod Nano is cheaper and a lot smaller. The iPod Nano also has an FM radio, pedometer, voice memo capability, built in special effects, and this thing called iTunes you might have heard of. Want 16gb of storage instead? A 16gb iPod Nano is only $179 (still less than an 8gb Flip). And if you're a Mac user you've also got iMovie and iDVD to edit and burn the videos when get to the Mac. Oh, and you can post them to facebook and YouTube too.
The video quality of the sample videos look 'good enough' and with its cheaper price, smaller size, and wider solution set, I would expect iPod Nano sales to rise and Flip sales to fall.
Sorry Cisco. It looks like you bought into the cheap, simple video camera space a little too late. But then Cisco wins even if the iPod Nano beats out the Flip because they'll sell more networking gear, so they are happy either way.
What do you think?
Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.Labels: Apple, Braden Kelley, Disruption, Innovation, iPod, Music, Video
posted by Blogging Innovation at 8:00 AM
5 Comments:
Branden,
I think that you're missing a piece of the Cisco story. From what I've read, Cisco didn't just buy the Flip technology to be a "cool" stand-alone product. They are looking to tie it into the network (remember that Cisco owns both Scientific Atlanta who does cable set top boxes and Linksys home networking gear). The iPod video should be "good enough" for YouTube, but the Flip when networked will be able to give HD video streamed between family members around the globe or as a home video conferencing option. This is potentially a real game changer not just competing against other video-cameras, but perhaps finally delivering home video-phone technology which could flip the telecommunications industry.
"Good enough" for whom? VGA isn't even good enough for YouTube, and most other video sites, because they have gone widescreen and HD. Good enough to play on your TV?
The point of the "good enough" revolution is to avoid feature-itis. Keep it simple and good. The iPod is a very strange combination of features. FM? Pedometer? Really?
The nano video was a disappointment. THey should have put HD video in the Touch, then it gets interesting.
If you hold the new nano you will see that it is too flimsy, sometimes some heft is needed to steady your hand. Oddly the device did not rotate to landscape in menu mode, which I found odd.
I think this is Apple suffering from featuritis and is protecting their low ned from attack.
The most interesting thing was that the nano does not take stills, at least here they made the right decision.
An iPod Nano Video could definitely be "good enough", but this generation isn't.
The Nano captures video in 640 x 480 (standard VGA), the Flip UltraHD which costs $199 does 1280 x 720 and has a HDMI output port built into it.
Once the Nano Video is up to that kind of specification, optical zoom, adds some level of image stabilisation, and on-board video editing, then it'll probably be good enough for most usage.
When people start to fear how people might use a device in a bad way, then people start to realize they can use the device in a good way.
iPod Nano banned from health club locker rooms:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/22/ipod_nano_privacy_concerns_adobe_lightroom_success_more.html
In the same way that phones are starting to do more of the heavy lifting in the still and video camera category, and will continue to take over more of this role over time, the iPod will own this role for those without a capable phone or those to young to have a phone (kids and tweens).
I could be wrong, but this is how I see things developing.
Braden
http://twitter.com/innovate
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