Xiaomi joins forces with camera brand Leica for the cameras of the Xiaomi smartphones. The first Xiaomi smartphone with Leica camera should be presented this summer.
Chinese smartphone makers regularly collaborate with traditional camera brands. For example, Oppo and OnePlus are working with Hasselblad and Leica has worked with Huawei in the past to improve the photos of the smartphones. Incidentally, without equipping the smartphones with a camera from Leica or Huawei, but to better adjust the Sony camera lens using software.
With such a collaboration, the brands try to put smartphones better on the map when it comes to photography. So far, brands such as Samsung, Google and Apple are miles ahead in that area. While (remarkably enough) they also use Sony lenses. Those collaborations have so far been with mixed results. Huawei has beaten the competition with Leica in the past. At Oppo and OnePlus, the distance between the major camera smartphone brands only seems to have increased after the collaboration with Hasselblad.
Huawei becomes Xiaomi
The collaboration between Xiaomi and Leica is especially striking because Leica has thus collaborated with Huawei in the past. While Huawei still makes smartphones, less focus is imposed here as sales have plummeted since the trade embargo. Xiaomi is working hard to take over Huawei’s large market share and, along with Samsung and Apple, seems to be the only brand to benefit from this.
That Xiaomi tries to seduce Huawei users is not subtle. For example, it says on the boxes of smartphones that they ‘just’ come with Google apps, which Huawei can no longer do since the trade embargo. This collaboration with Leica, which put Huawei on the map with its smartphones, is an extension of that.
In the announcement of Xiaomi the company announces that the first products of the collaboration will be presented in July.
