Award Recipient
Technology — Consumer Products
Jonathan Kaplan has continually evolved Pure Digital Technologies Inc. to stay relevant in a rapidly changing marketplace.
The company was born in 2002 to develop affordable digital cameras for a mass-market audience. Its first product was a single-use camera that was sold in the U.S. under the brands of CVS, Rite Aid and other drugstores. Kaplan believed he could build a better single-use camera and experience for the consumer. The cameras provided the consumer the ability to take 25 great photos and get prints and digital copies at only a slight premium to the standard film single-use cameras in the market.
After selling a few million cameras, Pure Digital, which is now part of Cisco, took its success in the single-use camera market into developing the first ever single-use camcorder. Pure Digital developed IP and know-how that allowed it to use off-the-shelf, low-cost digital components and create a high-quality video camcorder and customer experience. Its solution allowed consumers to record 20 minutes of video and in-store processing created a unique DVD experience, a real breakthrough in 2004.
By continuing to listen to its customers, Pure Digital realized that the opportunity to create a standalone camcorder product was much greater than the single-use market. Pure Digital took its single-use technology and developed the first ever point and shoot camcorder and, in the process, created the point and shoot camcorder category. Within a year, it launched the Flip Video brand, and within two years, it had the best-selling camcorders in the U.S. market.
Flip Video, under Kaplan’s leadership as CEO, was able to grow the camcorder industry after its 10-plus years of flat or declining sales.
How to reach: Pure Digital Technologies Inc., makers of Flip Video, now part of Cisco, (415) 445-7626 or www.theflip.com
