Come Tuesday September 9th, 2009 it will be the beginning of the end for Pure Digital. The company has risen to fame and fortune with it’s Flip camera line. Ranging in prices from $129 to $229 dollars the cameras have become the defacto standard for consumers to preserve memories in High Definition. Cisco obviously agreed with consumers and purchased the brand earlier this year for 500+ million dollars.
That being said I still think their reign is coming to end in being the standard for shooting video. Come next Tuesday Apple is going to be putting cameras on the majority of their iPod product line. From the iPod Touch to the iPod nano consumers are going to be able to take video and pictures from these devices. Now why is this a game changer? Well Flickr just announced the iPhone is the #1 most popular camera for user uploaded images. At this point in time video recording is only available on the new iPhone 3GS and YouTube has already announced that mobile video uploads are up 400% since launch.
The active internet connection and ease of use is what is driving this mediocric rise of video and photo uploads from iPhones, but there is also something else there to look at that I think Pure Digital can in no way defend. People do not care about HD anymore when it comes to consuming content away from a TV. We consume stuff on our Phones now, or in a web browser on YouTube watching video at 640 x 480. The whole idea of shooting all this footage in beautiful 1080p HD and burning it to a DVD has come and gone….its why Apple and nearly every other manufacturer has mailed it home when it comes to updating their DVD burning programs. Video and Photos have all moved to the internet and specifically into Social Spaces. In that space the resolution is much less important as to the immediate feedback of seeing that particular moment on your phone or computer screen. Look at how excited users were about the Facebook 3.0 iPhone app having video support.
Pure Digital and their $199 camera are going to get passed by iPod Touches, iPod nanos and currently the iPhone 3GS (when its available on more carriers) very quickly. With a built in 3G or 802.11 connection people can quickly distribute the videos and photos in the thousands of iPhone applications or simply by uploading to YouTube with one click.
I just recently watched an interview with an MMA Fighter Randy Couture and pay close attention and you will notice one reporter is recording the entire interview on an iPhone 3GS.
