Cisco Flip
The popular Flip video camera wasn't Cisco's to make -- it acquired Flip maker Pure Digital in March 2009, one of its best-known consumer-focused acquisitions. But it was Cisco's to kill, and kill Flip, Cisco did, in April 2011 during the start of its year-long corporate restructuring.
By itself, Flip will be remembered as a once-proud product done in by the consolidation of video, photography and other functions onto smartphones and other all-in-one mobile devices. For Cisco, it'll be remembered as a symbol of distraction: a shiny consumer object that enticed Cisco just as it should have been focused on competitors who wanted to attack its long-dominant enterprise and service provider networking shares.
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