Collaboration between Leica and Huawei has ended

Leica and Huawei confirm that they are no longer working together. In 2016, the companies entered into a long-term cooperation agreement in the field of smartphone camera technology. From 2016 to 2022, Huawei phones got cameras with the Leica name.

The collaboration between Leica and Huawei ended on March 31 this year, both companies confirm to The Register. In a response, the companies say they greatly appreciated the collaboration and say that it has created “new standards and technical possibilities” in the field of cameras in phones. The companies do not say why the cooperation has ended.

On Monday, Xiaomi announced that it would announce a smartphone in July in collaboration with Leica. It could already be concluded that Leica has found a new partner, but that the collaboration with Huawei had been discontinued was not yet confirmed.

Huawei first used the partnership with Leica in 2016 in the P9 and Mate 9 smartphones. The top models of the following years also received cameras that were made in collaboration with Leica. The Huawei P50 models are the last devices with the Leica brand on the back of the phone.

Leica worked with Huawei, among other things, on improving the lenses used, which were made by a third party. The companies also worked together to fine-tune image processing and Huawei devices had settings that should mimic colors from Leica cameras.

Huawei largely lost its market share in the smartphone market since severe sanctions were imposed by the United States in 2019. As a result, the Chinese manufacturer can no longer provide Google services on its smartphones, making them much less interesting for the Western market.

Huawei P9 from 2016