This is a sad day for soccer moms and casual videographers alike. I’ll admit that I was more than skeptical about the original Flip Video camcorder (by Pure Digital, at the time), since I said a regular digital camera could shoot video too. Then, the brand grew on me. The simplicity grew on me. And I got it. Now, it’s about to be put out to pasture.

It’s being reported that Cisco will be shutting down the Flip video camera part of its business, completely overhauling its “troubled consumer products business” because the company has “lost its way,” according to head honcho John Chambers; swaying too far away from its core business of routers, switches, and other network infrastructure.

Business hasn’t exactly been good for Cisco. The stock value has dropped from almost $40 in 2001 to a mere $17.50 today, including a loss of a third of the value over the past year. Also as part of the “restructuring” plan, they’ll combine the consumer-oriented Umi with the business-oriented TelePresence.

Cisco bought Pure Digital in 2009 for $590 million and now they’re gearing up to have the “consumer” division sold off to some other company. And here I am with two Flip MinoHDs on my desk, both of which have served me well. Does this mean that the Creative Vado can finally have its moment in the sun or are we back to my original skepticism and people are just going to use their digicams for video too?

[Flip]

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This is according to the Q4 2010 sales figures as released by Reuters, which is a little different that exact market share, but it does represent what people are buying. It’s only a matter of time. For Q4, a total of 33.3 million Android smartphones were shipped. Compare that to the 31.0 million Symbian phones shipped by Nokia, the previous leader.

What’s really interesting is that Symbian actually increased its sales (29.9 million in Q3), but it lost market share due to the more rapid adoption of Android (which had only 20.3 million devices shipped in Q3). Remember that it was only in Q4 2009 that Symbian had a 44.4% market share; that’s now dwindled down to 30.6%, despite an increase of about seven million units over the same period.

It probably helps that there are so many manufacturers on board with the increasingly mature Android platform. Compare it to the 16.2 million iPhones, and 14.6 million BlackBerry devices sold in Q4. Not surprisingly, Windows Phone 7 isn’t exactly all that popular just yet with just 3.1 million sold in Q4.

[Reuters via Engadget]

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