HMD Global to bring back Zeiss optics to Nokia devices

HMD Global is still basking in the glory of revitalising the Nokia brand, and this time they have struck a deal to bring back a key component to a number of the latter's smartphones in years past.

Nokia's across-the-street neighbour in Finland announced an exclusive partnership with German optical systems maker Zeiss, aiming to set up new imaging standards in the smartphone industry.

Nokia and Zeiss are no stranger to each other; their relationship started over a decade ago, with the latter's technologies having been incorporated into several of the former's devices, including the N Series, PureView and Lumia mobiles.

"It's been really exciting times since we've launched the first wave of the new Nokia smartphones with Android," Florian Seiche, president of HMD Global, said in a conference call with select media.

"We would also like to focus more on the core experience [for users]... and we want to build key partnerships for this."

He was joined by Andreas Beck, head of brand management and head of marketing consumer optics at Zeiss.

Seiche was referring to, of course, the recently-launched Nokia 3, 5 and 6 smartphones, plus the retro-inspired 3310.

When these were launched earlier this year, there was speculation that Zeiss technology would be part of the devices, though nothing was confirmed until this fresh announcement.

It is, however, expected that Zeiss would be making its return in the upcoming Nokia 9, a highly-anticpiated high-end device.

Seiche also discussed that virtual reality and augmented reality, technologies that are fast gaining popularity in the mobile space, are "going to be very big in the future".

They have pledged to deliver the best-possible imaging experience on smartphones, with mobiles becoming the go-to device for photography and social media.

"We really have another fantastic pillar in our overall product strategy," he added.
However, no specific date was given when they were asked when Zeiss technologies will be coming to future Nokia phones.

"We're working on the innovation and we can't wait to have that on future products,"
Asked by Khaleej Times whether all these will have a significant impact on pricing, HMD Global pointed out that they'd want to "bring the premium experience to as many users as possible".

"Imaging is an essential experience for smartphone users. When we design our products, we make some very careful choices on which elements we would use... to excel; we invest heavily on everything," he added.

Source: Khaleej Times