Logitech’s webcam with articulating arm launches on Indiegogo

Logitech has launched a crowdfunding campaign for its latest webcam, the Logitech Reach. Prices range from a discounted $259 Black Friday deal to $399, with shipping expected in July 2024.

At first glance, it seems unusual to see a large brand like Logitech on Indiegogo, a platform normally associated with small startups that need the preorder money to put their projects into production. But Logitech said that the crowdfunding campaign would allow it to “gain invaluable insights into the use cases for Logitech Reach in various environments” when it announced its decision to use Indiegogo Enterprise when it first promoted the webcam in early September.

Indiegogo advertises that its Enterprise service is a way to “de-risk and accelerate corporate innovation” by gauging market demand and iterating and validating product offerings. Previous big names to have used the service include Bose, Sony, and Honeywell.

The approach starts to make sense when you look at the slightly experimental design of the Reach. Unlike a traditional webcam, which is designed to sit statically on top of your monitor or laptop, the Reach pairs a 1080p / 60fps Logitech StreamCam with an articulating arm. The idea is that, in addition to pointing the camera at your face, you can quickly point it down to show off your desk or angle it to show whatever else you might need. You could probably hack something cheaper together yourself by strapping a webcam to something like a mic arm, but Logitech argues that the Reach offers the functionality of a height-adjustable tripod, horizontal camera sliding rails, and tilt-adjustable ball joints in one.

In its press release, Logitech lists a wide variety of users who might find this useful. “Whether you are a creator, educator, gamer, streamer, designer or just want it for business reasons, this is the camera for you!” You have to wonder if the company will start targeting the webcam at more specific use cases after it collects its data from the crowdfunding campaign.

Logitech’s Indiegogo campaign is due to run for 31 days, after which the company has said it plans to put the webcam on more general sale. It’ll be interesting to see how it ends up marketing this relatively novel peripheral.