The UK video camera market is undergoing a sea-change, as the popularity of a new cult gadget – the Flip Video digital camcorder – takes off. Flip Video has now sold its millionth unit in the USA, capturing 14 percent of the total video camera market and changing the shape of the camcorder sector. With sales in the UK already following a similar pattern, Flip Video is set to become a key player in a UK market valued at over £340 million .

Since its USA launch in May 2007, the simple and affordable Flip Video Ultra has become the best selling camcorder in the USA , and is Amazon’s top selling digital camcorder. The Flip not only outstrips established brands such as Sony and JVC, in terms of sales, but defines an entirely new market of web users shooting and sharing their videos.

Ray Sangster, EMEA President at Flip Video stated: “Our goal was to make video products that are fun and easy to use, and we have ended up transforming the camcorder marketplace. Selling one million units so quickly demonstrates how the products have captured the imagination of a broad range of consumers; and even at this early stage we can see that the same thing is happening here.”

Launched in the UK in June this year, initial sales of Flip Ultra units have closely mirrored the trends experienced in the United States, with Flip Video expecting this trend to continue during the lucrative Christmas sales period. The Flip Video Ultra is the world’s first handheld camcorder with built-in software and a flip-out USB arm – allowing editing and immediate upload to social media sites such as YouTube and MySpace. Already dubbed, ‘As important to film as the iPod is to music ’ the simplicity of a Flip Video has helped to fuel the explosion of uploaded video content on the web.

“There are over 100 million videos uploaded to YouTube alone, and this burgeoning trend for sharing multimedia is a key to Flip Video’s success. As the UK is second only to the USA in terms of the volume of video uploads we fully expect Flip Video to be just as popular on this side of the Atlantic,” added Sangster.

About the Flip Video Ultra
Shoot and share your own videos with the world’s first handheld camcorder with a flip-out USB arm and built-in software. This neat little camera is designed to make it super simple to create and upload films online.  The Flip Video Ultra Series incorporates a high-resolution 1.5 inch transflective, no-glare display for clear viewing in even the brightest sunlight, latest-generation video processing technology, and 2GB on-board memory to hold 60 minutes of video. Features include:

• One-touch recording with 2x digital zoom
• Instant on-camera playback and delete
• High-speed video sharing from any PC or Mac
• One-click emailing of videos and video greeting cards
• Custom editing of movie mixes, with the option to set them to your own music
• Capture of still photos from video
• Superior low-light handing and no glare display

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