After reading the post from Craftman I contacted Ideal World and was able to obtain the following clarification:
Cisco recently announced that it will be exiting the Flip business and support customers and partners with a transition plan. Cisco will continue its focus and commitment to deliver best in class solutions that extend the network as a platform, from businesses into the home through its Linksys products and consumer TelePresence solutions with ūmi. More information can be found at Cisco’s consumer website.
We will double down our focus on home networking, to better align with Cisco’s core networking infrastructure as we expand the network into the home to deliver an outstanding experience for the customer. Linksys created the category, and its products have been the choice of many consumers with more than 100 million devices sold worldwide for well over a decade. Our leadership, knowledge in networking platforms and renewed commitment in home networking will help us to further innovate and bring to the consumer market new solutions like our recent Linksys E-Series wireless routers and switches.
As we execute a transition plan for Flip and grow our Home Networking business, we wanted to reach out to our key retail and channel partners to provide you some insight on our direction.
Initial Flip Transition Plan
We are working through the detail of the Flip transition but wanted to give you some highlights:
• FlipShare software will continue to be fully functional and will be supported until 12/31/2013.
• Technical support will continue to be provided within the terms of our warranty which is 1 year from purchase date for UK. For customers that have issues that are not covered by our warranty or that are outside their warranty period, Cisco will continue to provide support for a nominal fee until 12/31/2013. E-Support will continue to be complimentary and available until 12/31/2003.
• We will be working directly with you to develop plans to effectively and efficiently sell the remaining stock through the channel without disrupting the category.
A more detailed plan will be communicated in the next few weeks and we will work together to ensure we support the category through the transition
Direction in Home Networking
Our line of home networking products is and will continue to be available at retail and online retailers. We are building out the details of our strategy and roadmap and will be setting up meetings with you shortly to view this and establish joint plans to continue to bring new exciting products to retail.
We appreciate your business and partnership and on behalf of all of us at Cisco, we look forward to growing the Home Networking category together with you for decades to come.
Sincerely,
Peter Groom
UK Country Manager
