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Steve Jobs can go ahead and add another notch to his belt. The Flip camera is the latest casualty of the smartphone's charm offensive and ever-expanding role in our lives; it now joins Microsoft's Zune in the dustbin of history.

Parent company Cisco (which purchased Flip creator Pure Digital just two years back in a $590 million deal-an index on how hot the device so recently was), today announced the shuttering of the business by Q4 of this year.

Cisco's future plans mostly involve enterprise customers, though it will be maintaining its consumer business, refocusing on in-home video networking solutions-a market that's clearly growing given that everything released these days seems to be a streaming media server in disguise. Cisco mentions that it will continue to support existing FlipShare customers with a yet-to-be-announced transition plan, which shouldn't be a stretch given the social functionality of that program.

The Flip-companion, fashion statment, and refreshingly simple single-purpose device in a world of jacks-of-all-trades-will be missed.

(photo: Dan Bracaglia)

- Michael Berk