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. With One other thing: What’s the hidden connection between Buying In and Flip Video Camcorders?
Posted Under: Products
I forgot to mention this just now, and maybe it’s better as a separate post anyway. I was looking at the Amazon page for Buying In, and noticed that in the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” lineup, aside from an assortment of books, there was the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, 60-Minutes (Black).
Presumably this means that one person happened to double up on a book/camcorder order. But it’s still kind of interesting, because I’ve been hearing so much about these camcorders all of a sudden. Seems like everybody’s getting one.
Do you have one? I have a feeling at least one of you does — or has it coming in the mail soon.
What is it about these devices? Why are they taking off? Maybe the answers are obvious, but any good theories?
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Kim Fellner's book 
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Reader Comments
I pre-ordered your book… and I was thinking about getting one.
this is really interesting here:
http://kirkmastin.blogspot.com/2008/02/flip-video-vlog-tale-of-two-formats_21.html
The quality is very good for the price… and who says you need the best quality?
These things are so good. $150. $50 waterproof case. So easy to use and if you break it, who cares? We got one about a month ago and we use it every day and we don’t have to worry about handing it to our 2 year old daughter or taking it out surfing. I think this could be right up there with the iPod, maybe even more, since no computer really needs to be involved, so you get the over 50 crowd into it on that aspect alone.
I have one…they are friggin’ awesome! Very, very simple to use. And for today’s “youtube/blog” culture this item allows you to capture anything, at any time. No charging, it all works with batteries. No long loading screens or flipping through a million features. Just turn it on, press record, plug in and upload. Done and done!
By the way, someone’s wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend is going to get so totally busted!
I have a Flip Camera (not the snazzy black one, but a boring white one). Personally, I really like it. It’s small and less intrusive to people who typically still get weirded out with video cameras around. It’s also really handy. Shoot, plug it in, edit and upload – that’s pretty much how it goes.
The only weird thing about it is that it is actually a little more PC than Mac friendly. I had to download some stuff to get it to work with my Mac and the product support wasn’t really all that helpful with that process.
I heard that they are taking off and that all of the bloggers at SXSW had one. But I didn’t see too much video come out of that. Maybe people were drunk and showing off their toys?
We got one primarily for our 9-year old son. I didn’t give it much thought, then he started playing around with it and I saw how easy it was to use. It really is a nice product.
I’d like to see what the cross-over between Flip Camera owner and YouTube posters. It’s got to be, or soon will be, a pretty high cross over.
It was me man. I pre-ordered your book and I bought one of these for my kids. I didn’t buy them at the same time though. Speaking of Amazon, have you talked to your publisher yet about getting the book Kindle-a-fied?
I own a specialty on-line wine retailer. We’re hosting a series of wine “house parties” this year and I am thinking about buying some and giving them out to the hosts of our wine parties so they’ll capture some of the events and post them easliy on-line like at YouTube or on our blog etc.
Why are they taking off? Simplicity, price, design. Oh, and Oprah.
So: Big thanks to everybody on this. So much response! Almost makes me want to get one, though I can’t imagine what I’d do with it.
I’m amused to actually SOLVE the “people who bought this” mystery by forcing a confession from you, old many brian. I should’ve known. You’re still the gadget king, after all these years. I’ll try to get some info about the publisher’s kindle plans and get back to you directly. Or maybe I’ll post something here on murketing first to see if there’s other demand.
Thanks again…
well, this is sort of interesting, I suppose. We signed up for a non-profit you tube account for The Public Design Center and then a few weeks later a free Flip Video arrives in the mail. You Tube was giving away 300 Flip Videos to the first 300 Non Profits that they approved for an account. After one arrived in the mail (this was about three months ago) I started seeing ads everywhere. We really like ours. PLUS it was free. We had no idea when we were signing up for the you tube account that a free video camera was part of the deal.