David Pogue from the NY Times reviews the extremely basic, and (thus) easy to use Flip, a tiny, stripped-down video recorder the size of a digital camera. Within one year after its introduction it has 13 percent of the camcorder market, according to its maker, Pure Digital.

"Look what my first grader did with it all by herself," one guy told me. "We're using them in schools to teach narrative structure," said a teacher at a conference. "I bought two of 'em: one for my 80-year-old grandmother," said a neighbor, "and one for my 5-year-old." O.K., wait -- what?

Why there aren't more Flips
In a follow up article Pogue explains why there aren't more basic, easy to use products such as the Flip.

The high-tech product managers believe that in order to sell to consumers, they must first seduce the major reviewers. And to do that, most believe they have to offer “more check marks in more boxes” than their competitors.

See a demonstration video here.
And the difference in video quality with the more expensive, extensive video cameras isn't that big, according to this movie.
[Thanx to Monique for the tip]