Huawei And Leica To Partner Up For Smartphone Cameras

At the CP+ camera event in Japan this week, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei and German camera company Leica announced that they were forming a long-term partnership to work on mobile photography together. It's a bit of a unique pairing: a high-end luxury camera maker that's shown no interest in mobile working with China's dominant smartphone producer. Then again, maybe that lack of overlap is exactly why they're working together.

The announcement sadly didn't reveal any solid details or products that might come from the partnership. Instead there was a lot of fluff about Leica and Huawei seeing "both technology and photography brands combining their shared ethos in a long-term commitment to the art of craftsmanship, meticulous engineering and the spirit of winning collaboration, to create a powerhouse in the reinvention of smartphone photography."

Aside from promises of research, development, design, and co-engineering cooperation, the two companies say more details will be revealed as the partnership progresses.

Leica's only real venture into the smartphone market was a result of its frequent partnership with Panasonic; the Lumix CM1 cameraphone in 2014. The deal with Huawei could see Leica's optics making their way to the formers smartphone at some point. Plus, the camera maker's status as a luxury brand is likely to be valuable in the Chinese market.

It's hard to see where Leica's benefit would be in such an agreement, but maybe they're just looking to expand their presence in a world dominated by smartphone photography. Then again, this could all just be a surface-level partnership, with nothing really coming of it besides brands combining marketing power.

SOURCE Huawei/Leica