Your smartphone is already giving your DSLR a run for its money (just ask the folks behind March’s issue of Bon Appetit magazine), and now, a new partnership between Huawei and Leica may be taking mobile photography to the next level. On Thursday, the Chinese cellphone manufacturer and the German camera brand announced a groundbreaking collaboration that features “shared premium ambitions and spirit” that the two hope will “create a powerhouse in the reinvention of smartphone photography.”
It’s an interesting intersection between old and new — Huawei, a relative newcomer to the smartphone scene, has surpassed all expectations in 2015 by becoming the first Chinese company to sell more than 100 million mobile products in a single year. The firm has now become a household name, appearing on the Interbrand Best Global Brands list in 2014, and releasing popular devices like the Huawei Watch and Huawei P8.
Leica, on the other hand, has a venerable lineage on its side — founded in 1846, the German company has long been the standard in the photography field, and has been the camera of choice for “prominent photographers and emerging new talent around the world.” With the joining of these two forces, however, both parties seem convinced that they’ll be tapping into something pretty phenomenal.
Richard Yu, CEO of the Huawei Consumer BG, issued this statement about the partnership:
“We choose our partners carefully, and with this extraordinary collaboration we are offering our wide customer base and consumers the best elements of two expert brands in harmony: combining innovation and design, enhancing the user experience and continuing to inspire amazing advancement in human technology through exceptional premium imaging quality. Leica is a legend in the world of photography; we believe no other manufacturer has revolutionized the industry as much as them.”
And as for Leica, Oliver Kaltner, CEO of Leica Camera AG, said the following:
“The strategic alliance between Huawei and Leica Camera demonstrates the desire of two rapidly growing and globally active brands to continuously push the envelope of the technologically possible. In addition to innovative strength and premium standards, our two companies are united by the commitment to uncompromising quality. The technology partnership with Huawei offers Leica Camera an excellent opportunity to introduce its proven optical expertise into a new product segment and to unlock exciting business areas in the field of mobile devices. Smartphones make a very important contribution to the world of photography and open an important door for Leica to new target groups and fields of application.”
For now, there are no further details on just how this partnership will affect your cameras, but with any luck at all, you can expect some pretty great pictures to come out of it.
