But there’s a second part of the tragedy, too, something that nobody knows. That new Flip that the product manager showed me was astonishing. It was called FlipLive, and it added one powerful new feature to the standard Flip: live broadcasting to the Internet.
That is, when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the entire world can see what you’re filming. You can post a link to Twitter or Facebook, or send an e-mail link to friends. Anyone who clicks the link can see what you’re seeing, in real time—thousands of people at once.
Think how amazing that would be. The world could tune in, live, to join you in watching concerts. Shuttle launches. The plane in the Hudson. College lectures. Apple keynote speeches…
And the FlipLive was supposed to ship yesterday. April 13. The day after Cisco killed the Flip.
You can do the same thing with a mobile and free Qik software. But a nicely integrated package with the simplicity and reliance of the Flip would have been fantastic. Hopefully someone will buy it from Cisco and relaunch.
