Bet you didn’t see this one coming, Cisco has just confirmed with Pocket-lint that it is killing the Flip Video brand, closing down the business and ceasing production of all models.

“Stopping the business rather than selling it was the best course of action,” Cisco’s global head of public relations exclusively told Pocket-lint on Tuesday, in response to our query on why the sudden decision.  

In the dramatic move, the company will cease all production of Flip Video products globally, but has said that it will support the company’s FlipShare service for existing customers, while it formulates a “transition plan.”

"We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy," said John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO. "As we move forward, our consumer efforts will focus on how we help our enterprise and service provider customers optimize and expand their offerings for consumers, and help ensure the network's ability to deliver on those offerings." 

When asked whether the Flip Video division wasn’t earning its keep, Tillman side-tracked the answer, perhaps suggesting that the pocket camcorders are fast losing out to mobile phones with 720p video recording capability.

Tillman says that Cisco will instead focus on its core products and services moving forward.

Cisco bought the massively popular Flip Video business only a couple of years ago.

What do you think? Is there no future for handheld camcorders, considering that smartphones can record HD video? Let us know in the comments below...