Flipping the flip chart

Flipping the flip chart

Samsung is paying for a lot of social media buzz around their new digital flipchart - Flip. I have just recently seen a video shared here on Linkedin that boasted a number of features of this new gadget. Lots of likes, but I wonder how many people will be adopting this new digital collaborative technology? Would it accomplish the goal of replacing paper flip charts and will make them an obsolete object from the past? The crude reality is that it won't and I will expand here 5 main reasons, the last of them the more surprising one.

First reason: It is too expensive for massive adoption.

A few years ago, I wrote here about the SMART Kapp, the first serious attempt to bring digital ink to a paper flipchart replacement. The idea was groundbreaking: to create an affordable gadget around USD/EUR 990 that could be massively adopted in all sorts of places where a paper flip chart is being used. This was a multi-million units sale opportunity, except that it failed. Why would an equivalent product from Samsung that costs USD 3,400 / EUR 3.200 would sell more? Just because of the built-in LED screen?

Second reason: the built-in screen is too small.

According to the Flip product page, the product has a built-in 55" UHD display, that helps your team to work smarter, faster and better. Because, it says: 'business meetings can take place anywhere, anytime, and you can take the stress out of the logistics.' Of course, the thinking behind these lines is that same that Henry Ford used when he said: 'A customer can have a car painted any color he wants as long as it’s black”. As any professional in the industry will tell you, each meeting room has different size requirements. Most interactive displays brands offer a range of sizes from 55" to 86" to fit most types of meeting rooms up to 30-50 people. The Samsung Flip unique screen size will fit only the very small spaces with a maximum of 4-6 people gathered around the screen.

Third reason: the paper usability problem

The idea behind the Samsung Flip is the same as the SMART Kapp it is beautiful in its simplicity. But does it really solves a business problem or is it just another gadget that will be part of the office technology graveyard? To answer this, we have to consider the two type of users of a flip chart: professional group facilitators and the rest of the world. I certainly know well the first set of flip chart addicts, I am a member of the IAF - International Association of Facilitators, since 2014. Like me, most of my colleagues are absolutely committed to making meetings more effective, and paper flip charts and post it notes are an instrumental part of their activity, so potential great news for Samsung Flip, right? Except that this professional group, although emerging, represents a small fraction of all flipchart users in the world. The 99% of the rest of the world that uses a flip chart, simply needs to make a written note to capture some important points in a meeting or just to draw a diagram on paper. The majority of us will have trouble abandoning the 'instant-on' support of traditional flip charts because all digital devices require the effort of a learning curve that can never compete with handwriting on a piece of paper.

Fourth reason: Where are my Office 365 annotations?

Since version 8, the Windows OS is definitively embracing touch functionality in the PC desktop environment. When we think of having a digital flip chart in a meeting or in a classroom, we immediately think about making annotations on top of our familiar office package. Because Microsoft is making their programs more and more touchscreen friendly we now expect to be able to use them on a large windows surface hub. This trend is precisely being set by specialized companies like CTOUCH, that offer the same as Flip but in many form factors and, in some model ranges, for just a fraction of the cost of the Samsung Flip which is a non-Windows device. Arguably, Windows operating system has become a de facto standard for any visual collaboration environment and non-Windows devices risk to be perceived as creating islands of proprietary non-compatibility.

Fifth reason: smartphones extend the flipchart product life-cycle

The paper flip chart receives a digital boost that will extend its product lifecycle with the recent massive smartphone adoption. It is so convenient to be able to take pictures of the flip chart notes and mail them to the meeting participants, and this is already 50% of the "new powerful features" of Samsung Flip - to be able to digitally send our flip chart meeting notes.

To conclude

We need to acknowledge that when Samsung launches a product like Flip this is to become a part of a larger and highly coherent portfolio of products addressing the business users. Samsung already owns the smartphone tablets and wearables space and the digital signage and video-walls world. Their fast-growing computing products line that includes Chromebooks and surface laptops is now enhanced with Flip.

Like its predecessor from SMART, Flip is an attractive tool that creates a more collaborative workspace with simplicity and ease of use, no doubt important purchase criteria to consider. However, like the SMART Kapp (and before that with the Panaboard), I won't expect Flip sales volume to have a world impact. Alas, the vast majority of flip chart users in the world are not professional group facilitators. "Why bother to take and share notes if we never follow them up at the next meeting". Sounds familiar?

Yet the new styles of working in this XXI century require more and more digital annotation features and the touchscreen display will be a must-have tool in the meeting room but not necessarily in a small 55" flip chart format. An average meeting room can have easily between 8 to 12 participants and up to 30 or 35 people can be sharing an interactive screen, so a range of screen sizes will be required from the same specialized vendor.

By default, the latest generation of a collaborative touchscreen display like CTOUCH Leddura 2Meet offers the best of two worlds. An instantly accessible digital flip chart in a built-in Windows 10 with all the powerful features of a digital-ink friendly OS including the new Edge browser, and access to the Microsoft office suite. The adoption of products like One Note can make all the collaborative difference in the vast majority of the meetings in your organization.

Credits and further references

Dov Tsal

Agile Coach, Facilitator and Team-Whisperer ?? Understanding the problem is 95% of the solution

6 年

I like tools that solve problems, still don't understand what is THE problem such a tool addresses, and is it worth the constrains it poses. BTW, when VR glasses become a reality, I'd love to see a VR flipchart, with a pressure sensitive set of markers, a strechable-sized paper, etc. till then, paper and postits will be my first choice.

Nick Housego PSM

Facilitator awarded the Public Service Medal for embedding facilitation across the Australian Public Service

6 年

Paul excellent article and review of this emerging space and one I appreciate seeing. Shame the tech makers are not asking the users about how they use flip charts, why they use them etc. It is still hard to discount paper flip charts when you team them up with smartphones and apps. The paper based charts still offer plenty for the ‘entry’ price! Well done

Penny Walker

Facilitator, coach : change, sustainability. CPF | IAF Hall of Fame | CEnv. | FIEMA | linktr.ee/pennywalker

6 年

Thanks Paul for this introduction to the Samsung product. I'd add another reason why I'd stick with paper, at least for the time being: the ability to have multiple sheets visible at one time. As group memory, as an 'open record', and for group work which needs a really big canvas e.g. project planning, time-lining, system-mapping. One A0 sized space for capturing that is not enough!

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