FlipLive is kinda awesome, but as you said... when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot... Personally, I cannot think of too many occasions where the average person is: 1)in range of wifi, 2) has something worth sharing with an audience who are available there and then, 3) wouldnt rather use Skype video conferencing so as to get two-way communications. There are a few, but I'm not sure there's enough.

More than 40 hours of video uploaded to youtube every second of every day. A good portion of it is people just sitting in their bedroom talking about all the stupid shit they just bought at Target. And if they could record and upload in one easy step, that's a huge market right there.

Yes, but they didnt have to spend $200 on a new device to do it - they just used the camera built into their $400 laptop

True, or buy a $15 webcam

This is not about the 2million people who already do this.

It's about the 2billion that don't and don't have a $400 laptop.

But those 2billion don't have wifi or a $200 camera.

A camera is significantly easier to handle than a laptop, when filming anything other than the seated user position in front of the laptop.

My $100 Android phone has a record button in the Youtube app.

I think the main difference is that with Flip Live, you would be able to broadcast a public live feed to a large audience. So basically more like Ustream (one to many) than Skype (one to one). And normally, Ustream users show a live feed from a single fixed webcam, while this would have added an aspect of mobility.

Forget about live, I'd buy a flip that had the ability to automatically upload its videos whenever it's in a hotspot and save to card when it isn't.

I agree. FlipLive did infact do this (not automatic), albeit with some drawbacks that I cannot discuss in public. Even with those drawbacks, I think this was probably the most compelling use case for the average person.

Your prayers have been answered -- Eye-Fi SD cards do just that. Stick one in a digicam, and you're good to go.

http://www.eye.fi/products/mobilex2

As a bonus, you get a camera with far higher image quality and better ergonomics than a Flip cam.

Most modern smartphones have the ability to turn into a wifi hotspot.

My phone is a wifi hot spot, and is always within range.

While that is nice, couldn't (and isn't) this possible on any smart phone with 3G/4G and a video camera?

Justin.tv has an app that can do this

Yes, http://qik.com/ (not affiliated, not a user, but it seems to do this).

http://ustream.com also has an app that can do this

Yes, but most people don't have smart phones.

From the article: "Of the one billion cellphones sold annually, a few million are iPhones. The masses still have regular cellphones that don’t capture video, let alone hi-def video. They’re the people who buy Flip camcorders."

You mean like a webcam?