FOSCAM brand reemerges in the US

I’ve been writing about FOSCAM products since 2014, and using them since 2013 when I took a security camera of theirs and repurposed it to be a baby monitor.

TL;DR guess who’s back, discount codes at the bottom.

Since then I’ve purchased seven other FOSCAM cameras, and a host of Amcrest branded devices for various work related projects and some additional baby monitoring.

In case you’re not familiar with the baby industry, claiming something is a baby product adds $100 to the pricetag, and the FOSCAM security products more than did the job of anything labeled “baby.”

These cameras were a reasonably priced fully featured dream.

A while back the US version of the FOSCAM website had a claim on it that the company that manufactured the FOSCAM product had been undercutting the US distributors and competing directly against them.

Amcrest was born, a really terrible supposedly final release of the FOSCAM viewer app came out which crashed on half the devices I had it on, and the US FOSCAM site started offering discounts for Amcrest products based on having purchased a FOSCAM camera in the past. A re-released FOSCAM Viewer came out that didn’t crash immediately or force you to go to the Play Store to get a different app and that was that for a while.

It appeared FOSCAM in the US was on the way out until recently when a very oddly worded update came out for one of the FOSCAM apps that made it look like the thing had been hacked (there was a game of chance included to play as well,) however there were a lot of new features.

I tweeted out not expecting FOSCAM to be about and was informed that the new US team was just getting started.

Hey @Foscam I’m seeing this badly worded system message pop up in the app – looks almost like y’all were hacked pic.twitter.com/qHdTMyxjpX

— Paul King (@nopking) March 28, 2017

A few back and forths and I got some questions answered by a representative of the new FOSCAM US team:

1. Why did the old Foscam US sales/team leave/become Amcrest
   1. The team left because the CEO of the old US Sales Rep wanted to start his own company on his own terms.
2. What’s new about the new team
   1. The new team is not just a sales representative but we are part of the Foscam Brand which means we are in control of the marketing, branding, product designs, App development and every decision being made. We are directly involved in working to improve and re-brand for the US market.
3. Is there going to be support for multi-window on mobile/tablets again?
   1. We are pushing to add this feature again, it is in the pipeline right now
4. Is there any development software-wise as Foscam, or is it a Shenzhen OEM software with translations and minor mods?
   1. Although I cannot answer this directly as a lot of decisions have yet to be made, we are directly involved in the new software development. We very recently hired a member to audit and head up the re-development of the App2.0 and other software assets.
5. Are any of the older model cameras going to be updated so you can use a modern browser for initial config?
   1. This issue is one of the biggest things we are pushing as a team as we are getting a lot of people reaching out to us about it. So the answer will be yes.
6. Will there be actual dedicated web support? Seems this was something that was failing in the old setup.
   1. Reaching out to our social media will connect you with one of our US Team members, we also are launching a new website very soon which will have support available 24/7. Since Amcrest was founded, it has confused a lot of our customers and we are trying to be a part of those conversations and clarify the confusions.

So should you be wondering what happened or what is happening, that’s what we’ve got at the moment.

I was also offered some cameras to review and some discount codes. I’m passing on the cameras as I have five other cameras in the pipeline for review at the moment, but here are some discount codes for some of their products that you can get at the FOSCAM Mall on checkout.

Camera | Code

9821P B 720P HD IP Camera | FOSCAM20
Foscam FI9831P, the pan/tilt wireless IP camera | FOSCAM25
FI9803P Outdoor Waterproof Wireless IP Camera | FOSCAM25
FI9853EP Outdoor Waterproof H.264 720P PoE IP Camera | FOSCAM15
FI9828P Outdoor Waterproof PTZ Wireless Dome IP Camera | FOSCAM50

I’m assuming that number is the discount. I don’t think I’ve reviewed any of these so don’t take this as an endorsement.

It’ll be interesting to see if the FOSCAM brand can re-establish itself following the highly reported “hackings” of 2014, the brand abandonment in 2015 in the US market (one way or the other,) and a new team.