Our favourite camera brand is in hot tea this weekend in one of its most important markets. For the record, this furore is likely to be one or other of the following (choose your own language, stir twice and let it brew for three minutes):
- 茶杯裡的風波、茶壺裡的風暴 (winds and waves in a teacup; a storm in a teapot) or more commonly a 风波 (fengbo) after the novel by Lu Xun.
- Une tempête
dans unverre d’eau (a storm in a glass of water) - Sturm
im Wasserglas (storm in a glass of water) also known in Wetzlar as “Selbstein Eilegen “ - Vihar egy pohár vízben (a storm in a glass of water)
- Tempest in a teapot (storm in a teacup)
- Una
tempesta in unbicchiere d’acqua (a storm in a glass of water) - زوبعة في فنجان
zawba’a fi finjan (a storm in a cup) - 찻잔속의 태풍 chat jan
sokui taepung (a typhoon in a teacup) - コップの中の嵐
koppu nonaka noarashi (a storm in a glass) - Tempestade em
copo de água / Umatempestade numcopo de água (storm in a glass of water / a tempest in a glass of water); - Буря в стакане
burya vstakane (a tempest in a glass) - Una
tormenta en unvaso de agua (a storm in a glass of water) - Bir kaşık
suda fırtına (storm in a spoon of water)
No doubt Dr Kaufmann and his team will be attempting to pull the offending bag out of the teacup this weekend. If not, das Wesentliche is likely to become less essential in at least one major market.
Leica will Survive!
Of that I am sure!
This article is so clever that cannot find its content ( body of text). But clever, I guess.
This has been all over the internet for the past 4 or 5 days. Just do a search with Leica and China as the search criteria.
William
Sorry if it was a bit obtuse. It was an attempt to write about the banned video without mentioning the L word.
It will be interesting to see if this affects their relationship with huawei. Perhaps a new relationship with a different mobile manufacturer will come about. Imagine an iPhone with the Leica mobile lenses hmmm
Good point Dave. At the very least the red dot will have to be removed from all future Huawei phones. I’m certain that will turn into a loss of licensing revenue for Leica.
Dr Kaufmann is (or was) an Apple fanboy. I imagine his first port of call was Cupertino but, of course, Apple doesn’t do deals of this nature. The Apple brand is an end in itself and I doubt that adding a Leica logo would improve sales (except among Leica fans). But that would be a mere Corinthian Bagatelle for Apple’s sales figures.
It remains to be seen if Leica’s distancing from the Brazilian Leica agent will impress the Chinese. If Kaufmann cannot work his magic with strong lobbying support from HauWei, then Leica is in deep do-do. In a worst possible instance the company could lose its Chinese market as well as its relationship with HauWei. That, I imagine, would be a major catastrophe that would be detrimental to the model development programme. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I would hazard a guess that they are not enjoying a very happy Easter in Wetzlar.
Unless there is a big change in mentality, I cannot see Leica ever doing a deal with Apple who are a company that likes to own everything that moves on its systems.Yes, it’s phones are nicer to use than Huawei’s, but Apple would swallow Leica up and, frankly, no matter what Mike says, they don’t seem to be ‘nice folks’ and I say that as a person who uses a lot of Apple equipment. They are not a company that I really trust. I only use their equipment out of convenience or necessity. As regards Huawei, I don’t distrust them, but I don’t trust Google, whose systems are on Huawei phones, at all.
William
Tighter control required at Leica Central by Dr K and his team.
William
A flash in a pan!
I shutter to think of who lost face.
I note that they have responded fairly quickly, China being a huge market for them.
They wouldn’t want the Leitz to go out in Wetzlar now, would they?