‘Huawei loses Leica as a partner for camera, cooperation with Xiaomi?’
Leica and Huawei have been collaborating in photography for many years. Partly thanks to the help of Leica, every P- and Mate-series smartphone managed to thrive with the camera. But that is likely to change.
Leica and Huawei split up
It seems that the Huawei P50 series is the last series of smartphone from the Chinese manufacturer where the camera was developed together with Leica. The collaboration started in 2016, with the Huawei P9 being the first smartphone with a Leica camera. However, this collaboration seems to be coming to an end. A generally well-informed source reports this news.
The reason is not entirely clear, but it is quite possible that Leica wants to work with a manufacturer that sells many more smartphones. Due to the US sanctions, Huawei’s market share has plummeted. The same source reports that it is quite possible that Leica is looking at a collaboration with Xiaomi. Honor and Sharp are also mentioned, although they are smaller than Xiaomi.
Collaboration with a well-known name for the camera is done by many brands. Sony has the knowledge and techniques in-house, so they don’t need it. Nokia works with ZEISS and OnePlus has recently started working with Hasselblad. There are also rumors that Samsung would like to partner with Olympus for the smartphone camera.
