In a bizarre move giant networking Company Cisco, has chosen to continue with the launch of an old Flip Video camera in Australia days after the company announced a brand new version of the phone for the US and UK markets.
The HD flip model being offered to Australian consumers, has less memory, a smaller LCD screen and poorer resolution than the UK and US model that went on sale earlier this month in the USA.
The Company has also announced that they have appointed Ingram Micro to distribute the product in Australia they are also recruiting celebrities in Australia to promote their new camera offering.
PR executives for Cisco, claim that the decision to launch an inferior camera into the Australian market was made because of what they claim is “compliance and operating issues in Australia” Vs the US model.
However SmartHouse finds this odd as the recorded HD files can be stored onto the Cisco Flip cameras storage system as H264 files and played back to a PC as well as posted to a host of social network sites.
We also believe that it can be played back via a HDMI cable to a HD TV.
The Cisco Flip Video camera is a new line of digital camcorders designed to easily shoot and share video on sites like YouTube, Facebook and other social network sites. In Australia it will have to compete up against similar and far superior offering from the likes of Kodak and JVC.
The Australia HD Flip model is black records at 1280 X720 and has 4GB of memory. The new US model has a brushed aluminium case 8GB of memory Vs 4GB in the model being offered in Australia.
The Flip MinoHD in Australia has a RRP of $299.95 AUD and the Flip Mino has a RRP of $ 229.95. Both models will be available by Xmas.
The new Mino Flip HD in the USA with 8GB of memory and a larger LCD display screen is selling for $229.99 US or $248 in Australian dollars. The 10% Australian GST is not included.
Specifications for the Australian Flip Camera’s:
Mino HD
Recording Time: 1 Hour
Memory: 4GB
Screen: 1.5″ Transflective
Video Resolution: High Definition, 1280×720
Frame Rate: 30fps Progressive Scan
Video Format: H.264, MP4
Average Bitrate: 9.0Mbps
Battery: Internal Li-Ion Rechargeable
Battery Life: Up to 2 Hours
TV Output: SD Composite Video
Zoom: 2 x Digital
Mino
Records: 1 Hour
Memory: 2GB
Screen: 1.5″ Transflective
Video Resolution: 640×480
Frame Rate: 30fps Progressive Scan
Video Format: MPEG-4 AVI
Average Bitrate: 4.0Mbps (auto-adaptive)
Battery: Internal Li-Ion Rechargeable
Battery Life: Up to 4 Hours of Recording Time
TV Output: SD Composite Video
Zoom: 2 x Digital (interpolated)
Specifications for the US models can be seen at:http://www.theflip.com/en-us/products/mino.aspx
More to follow.