New York – DXG USA made its traditional Spring visit to the Big
Apple this week with a renewed sense of urgency in the wake of Cisco’s decision
last week to drop the Flip camcorder business.
Paul Goldberg, DXG sales and marketing senior VP, said that like
other camcorder manufacturers, his company is looking to capitalize on the
market void that will be left after Flip inventory disappears from retail
warehouses.
DXG, he said, is well positioned with extensive lines of
horizontally and vertically styled pocket-size HD models at value pricing, and
is looking to ramp up production of additional models in the “candy bar” form
factor of the popular Flip line.
Goldberg said he was shocked to hear about Cisco’s decision to
fold the camcorder operation and felt badly for the 500 employees who will
suffer the greatest hardship from the move, but he is also looking forward to
claiming much of the business for affordable video products that is being left
on the table.
Goldberg said he inquired at Cisco about the possibility of
acquiring the Flip brand and certain assets, including the FlipShare online
video sharing portal, but Cisco seemed intent on holding onto the unit’s
remaining assets, even as the sales and marketing operations are being
shutdown.
Goldberg said retailers looking to fill the last-minute void left
in the wake of the Flip decision will find DXG’s fashion-focused Luxe line of
vertically styled HD camcorders with flip out LCD panels updated for 2011 with
new colors and designs. The models were introduced at International CES and are
shipping now at suggested retail prices ranging from $150-$200.
The company also offers a model with a candy bar form factor and
a twistable 16:9 3-inch LCD viewscreen, called the DXG Twist. It is shipping
now for a $170 suggested retail.
DXG also offers its QuickShots line of camcorders in multi-colors
at prices ranging from $120-$130.
Highlights of the company’s new camcorder offerings for the
spring and fall include three second-generation 3D models.
The 5F9V (shipping in June at a $299 suggested retail price) is a
1080p 3D model with rotating dual-lens system that twists into “binocular mode”
to shoot images on a horizontal plane. It includes a 3-inch full color
glasses-free parallax barrier 3D screen, and takes 5MP shots. The camera will
shoot both video and stills in either 2D or 3D.
3D content recorded by the camera can be played back on current
3DTV’s using 3D glasses, or directly on the camera’s built-in screen.
The company is also offering a candy bar form factor with a
twistable 3-inch glasses-free 3D screen in model 5G2 (shipping in September at
$299). It will also offer Full HD 1080p 3D and 2D recording, and takes 5MP
stills.
Cutting the adoption price for 3D even further, DXG will add a 3D
still camera ($80 suggested retail) that records two side-by-side,
1-by-1.5-inch, left-and-right images that can be printed out on a strip of
printer paper and viewed through a special viewer. The concept and approach is
reminiscent of the old ViewMaster stereoscopic 3D viewers kids have been using
for the past 50-plus years.
The camera will ship with three pairs of the viewers. Additional
viewers will be sold separately in a five-pack, for about $10.
“The advantage of this is you can print these photos up, put them
in an envelope and send them to grandma,” Goldberg said. “It’s really the poor
man’s 3D camera. We think kids are really going to love it and it will get them
involved with 3D so that as the technology progresses, they’re going to want
more and more of it.”
The company also just announced that it has reached a technology
licensing agreement with ISee3D to develop next-generation 3D camera devices
that use a single lens and single CCD.
“That will allow a very cost-effective, optical solution for 3D
camcorders,” he said.
Goldberg said last year’s premiere 3D product, which was bundled
with a glasses-free 3D viewing screen at a $599 retail price, successfully sold
more than 5,000 units through retail partner Hammacher Schlemmer.
The company also unveiled several higher-end horizontally
configured 2D products including the new flagship DXG-5K1 ($350 suggested
retail) featuring a 20x optical zoom, optical image stabilization, advanced
manual focus features, 3-inch touch-screen LCD control and 1080p video capture.
The DXG-B01 ($299) has a 12x optical zoom, electric image
stabilization with gyroscopic assist, 1080p HD video.
The DXG-5F0 ($179) offers a 5x optical zoom, and 720p/60fps mode.
