Huawei’s new flagship P9 and P9 Plus devices released just five months ago. Now the ever-growing Chinese phone giant is partnering up with Leica. Leica is once again the supplier of the camera system within the P9 devices. This time, however, the partnership goes further than just ‘supplier’.

The two companies have come together to open a new facility in Wetzlar, Germany, called The Max Berek Innovation Lab. This facility will be used to conduct research breakthroughs in optical technologies. The facility will also work on imaging technologies such as computational imaging and virtual and augmented reality.

The research and innovation facility is named after German pioneer of microscopy, Max Berek. Berek founded and designed the first Leica lenses. These legendary lenses were responsible for the optical design of more than 20 lenses for Oskar Barnack’s legendary camera, the world’s first mass market 135 (35mm) camera.

“In the future, over 90 percent of data traffic will be images and videos”, said Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei. “The Max Berek Innovation Lab provides the capacity to establish an even closer partnership with Leica, leading to continuous improvements in image and video quality”. As a result Huawei hopes to “deliver the most advanced innovations in the smartphone camera market and bring greater value to consumers”.

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Huawei recently announced that two brand new service centres would open in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Additionally, with the recent release of Huawei’s new mid-tier devices, the company is set to expand its market share among Android users.

“Huawei and Leica share not only enormous innovation power and years of research experience but also their dedication to providing the highest quality standards. The Max Berek Innovation Lab offers us a historic opportunity to unite the resources and extensive expertise of both companies to pioneer game-changing technologies,” confirmed Markus Limberger, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Leica Camera AG and Director of the Max Berek Innovation Lab.

[Sources: Huawei]

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Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.