Pentax Life

Hoya Pentax Imaging Systems Division and Microsoft Corporation have signed the cross-licencing deal today. The agreement covers digital cameras made by PENTAX as well as a broad range of other consumer products each company manufactures and sells. Ko Torigoe of Hoya Pentax said that “We believe that this contract will further solidify the alliance between the two companies. We also expect that it will bring considerable benefits to consumers in the near future, as we should be able to shorten the time required for product development because of technological advancement by both companies, and therefore deliver higher-quality products to the market.”

So what exact benefits to consumers Ko Torigoe is talking about? Ars Technica contributor Emil Protalinski has speculated about it:

Camera functionality for the Zune is entirely possible. The current Zunes can all store and display both pictures and videos and, while phone capabilities are unlikely, that does not mean that the Zune cannot pick up features that almost every mobile phone has nowadays: photo and video capture.

He could be right. It’s not the new business for Pentax, which is pretty known for its camera modules for mobile phones.