Everyone, even Cisco CEO John Chambers, agrees that it's time Cisco got back to being a plumber. Time to rid itself of all its consumerish pretensions. This would also be a great time to shed its image-oriented TV commercial barrage that positions the company somewhere between the UNICEF and Mother Teresa.

But surely, and I will call you surely when I want, its brainstorm to kill the Flip cam will be a PR disaster.

Anyone who's ever used a Flip cam has loved it. The Flip is the easiest and most joy-producing piece of machinery I've encountered since my Japanese transistor radio in 1962.

Word is that the iPhone and Droid phones have killed the Flip. I hope not. I have a Samsung Droid phone; its cam and video suck. It's worth it to me to carry the Flip around, too.

Killing the Flip reminds me of killing the Corvair. I can see legions of grey-haired Flipnatics gathering in the desert for decades to come to reminisce about the good old days and show how their ancient Flips are still taking great pictures and videos, and still pushing current through long-abandoned USB ports.

Mr. Chambers' decision to de-diversify seems to have been made rather hastily, even as it's clearly the right decision. But I cannot believe that Cisco did its due diligence in finding a buyer for the Flip business.

Maybe it did. But if so, the company needs to go public with this information, and go public with it now. Today.

Otherwise, I have no choice but to scream...SAVE THE FLIP!

• It’s Official: Cisco Buys Pure Digital (Flip Video) For $590 Million
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• The Redundant Array Of Independent Datacenters
• Hey Cisco, Give Me the Flip Cam Business, OK?