APATHETIC CISCO FLIPS THE BIRD AT FLIPCAM FANS
Following today’s announcement that Cisco would abandon it’s Flip and Flipshare consumer division to focus on other core areas of business, the neglect to announce the news to consumers through it’s presence on social media channels might strike some as surprising and to others, downright disrespectful.
 At time of writing, nothing had been announced to consumers via the Flip Video Facebook page, and mention of the mini cam’s exit from the market on its Twitter profile was limited to ‘We have the best fans/friends/followers in the world.’
 Worse to come from Cisco System’s Facebook page – a link posted to a white paper titled ‘Transform Your Business With Video’ seems cruelly ironic.
 In a Cisco Live Twitterchat with SVP Carlos Dominguez the only mention of Flip was in response to the suggestion that delegates should expect to receive free Flip Cams at Cisco Live ’11 – a suggestion rebutted by Dominguez.
 Cisco’s failure to engage its consumers at such a key stage of a product lifecycle is a risky tactic, and the loss of trust could lead users to switch to competitor brands like HP in the future.
 Now users are left wondering exactly what a ‘transition plan’ could mean for them and Cisco Systems looks less and less like ‘the human network’ they claim to be.           .