With Nokia now out of the hardware business until 2016, the man who helped create the popular Pureview camera technology, Ari Partinen, is making his way to Apple. This could mean the Cupertino-based company is looking to compete more effectively in the smartphone camera department in hopes to keep the iPhone relevant in light of strong competition.
Ari Partinen began work at Nokia back in 2007, where he worked closely with other engineers to bring forth the Nokia Pureview 808 smartphone with a 41-megapixel camera. It was a solid camera phone, but was lacking in other departments since it had an operating system based on the now defunct Symbian.
"Today will be my last day working for the amazing #Lumia family," says Partinen on Twitter. "In June I will start a new chapter in Cupertino, California. Much love!"
His work also brought to life the Nokia Lumia 1020; the first true Pureview smartphone based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform.
With Nokia's hardware business now part of Microsoft, one would have thought that Partinen would stick around with his old team. However, he has chosen to work with Apple beginning in June of this year, and we have no idea why that decision was made.
One thing we do know, however, is that the iPhone 6 could launch with a killer camera in the coming months, if Partinen is able to work his magic at Apple. This should be exciting news for Apple fans, though they should not expect an iPhone or iPad with a massive 41-megapixel camera. Apple is a company that takes pride in its design, and would likely not sacrifice sleek design and weight for a camera bump.
Losing Partinen to Apple is a blow to Microsoft, but not a huge one since he's just one of the several senior engineers working on the Lumia team. Future Lumia devices with the Microsoft logo should be fine where camera technology is concerned, but now Microsoft and everyone else have something to worry about now that Apple has an experienced camera expert on its team.
We would love to see Ari Partinen work make to the iPhone 6, but chances are it could end up on devices after the iPhone 6, unless Apple has already begun work on a new type of camera technology for the device.
