Two Tech Tools Say Goodbye

We've lost two really nice tech tools this week. But losses seem to be business choices, not an indication that the technology was not widely accepted and successful.

The biggest surprise was the announcement by Cisco that the Flip camera was being discontinued.

Cisco has rarely been a company that sold direct consumer products. But when they purchased the Flip camera a couple of years back, it seemed to be a new, positive direction for them. And the Flip was very successful. However, it is not the focus of the company and it just didn't work for them. So the Flip is going away.

There are other small video cameras on the market, but none had the success of the Flip. And with smart phones already in our pockets, maybe it is getting less necessary to have an extra device to capture video.

Our other loss this week is Flock. Flock was a great little browser built around social networking. And with the rise of social networking, that seemed like a perfect match. But there are so many browsers available and some of them are definitely big players in the field. So Flock is ending customer support this month and asking users to choose another browser.

Farewell Flock and Flip (no alliteration intended!)  We'll miss you.