• The New York Times, Wednesday, June 4, 2008 10:15 AM

Pure Digital -- a small San Francisco start-up -- is rolling out a slender new model, the Flip Video Mino. Smaller than the previous version of the Flip by 40%, the $179 Mino has curved edges and is meant to slip into the pockets or pocketbooks of youthful members of the MySpace generation. It can record up to 60 minutes of video.

Flip has sold nearly one million units of its Flip Ultra Camcorder -- a $149 four-button video recording device that has attracted the admiration of Oprah Winfrey and accolades from jaded product reviewers. It has been able to carve out a 20% share of a device category long characterized by flat sales and arcane user manuals.

The popularity of such a simple device has been an eye-opener for the consumer electronics industry. Device makers have been obsessed with adding, not subtracting, features to camcorders, but those features just confused many prospective buyers. Sony, Aiptek and Audiovox's RCA have all introduced camcorders for under $200 in the last few months.

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