This year the mid-range devices are at war with each phone having camera technology in collaboration with well-known camera and lens manufacturers. Among them are the vivo V40 series and also the Xiaomi 14T series. When I was in Oberkechen, Germany with vivo – I had the opportunity to visit the ZEISS headquarters and museum.
Unabashedly, I went on to ask the ZEISS representative who after working with Nokia and Sony, now with vivo – is ZEISS interested in working with other smartphone manufacturers? Sebastian Dontgen as the Head of Category Management, Marketing and Sales he answered that for now ZEISS will not choose anyone other than vivo and will only license to Sony. This is because, vivo and ZEISS made an agreement to cooperate in a long term that is not limited by time. This is for technology development and offering new innovations together in a short period of time with the target of releasing the latest offering as early as possible.
1) Nick Lee, 2) Sebastian Döntgen, 3) Ramona Ettig, 4) Oliver Schindelbeck
Oliver Schindelbeck as the Senior Smartphone Technology Manager, said that this collaboration with vivo also allows the ZEISS high-end lens technology that usually costs the cheapest above RM20,000 to be given to smartphones that are sold starting at under RM2000.
Not only that, with the changing times such as smartphone design or multi-camera technology, ZEISS no longer needs to produce special lens accessories for any smartphone as they once offered for the iPhone in 2016. However, if the future allows them will try experimenting with a photography kit with multiple buttons and maybe the ability to use ZEISS lenses directly to the phone.
At the same time, Dr. Ramona Ettig who is the Head of Mobile Device Imaging Research & Development shared that every time there is a new feature or function it comes from both vivo and ZEISS itself. Whenever there is an interesting idea for a smartphone, they will have a special team to meet and discuss to make sure this idea can become a reality.
Nick Lee who is the Vivo Product Director for Southeast Asia also added that the collaboration between vivo and ZEISS is not only because the logos are both blue but because both companies have the same values and dreams. Indirectly vivo and ZEISS hope that their collaboration will last forever, unlike Huawei and Leica which has ended or Oppo and Hasselblad which is limited to only three years.