Senior Pureview Engineer Ari Partinen departs Nokia to join rivals Apple

The days of Nokia as a smartphone brand might be numbered and it looks like some of the company's leading engineers are now moving on to new homes, now that the Microsoft acquisition is complete.  One person who will definitely not make the transition to join the Redmond-based software giant is Ari Partinen. Engadget reports that Senior Nokia Pureview engineer will be joining Apple this June. Partinen made the announcement through his Twitter account. 

Today will be my last day working for the amazing #Lumia family. In June I will start a new chapter in Cupertino, California. Much love! — Ari Partinen (@Partinen) May 9, 2014

 He started working with Nokia in 2007 and joined them as Image Quality Engineer. Later on he held the position of a Senior Design Engineer. Before he announced his switch, he was working as the Lumia Photography Lead. He described his role as, "Working in the fields of mobile photography, image quality verification, verification up-streaming, third party management and collaboration, supplier collaboration and technical marketing in various multimedia segments." He has also co-authored two papers; one titled 'Nokia Pureview Oversampling Technology' and another titled, 'Pushing the image of digital imaging', which form the basis for Nokia's camera features. The Pureview technology has been the driving force behind the camera innovations seen in Nokia phones such as the Lumia 1020 and Nokia Pureview 808. As of now, it is not clear what will be Partinen’s profile in Apple. With this hire, Apple has one of the leading experts in mobile photography on board and we can expect the next-gen iPhone or any future versions to pack in some impressive camera optics. Nokia’s Pureview cameras are known to be the best smartphone cameras in the market today and although iPhones are not lagging far behind in terms of the camera, Apple would be looking for a headline feature for the next-gen iPhone, given that the competition has come a long way since last year. Partinen's experience and his work in mobile camera optics will greatly help in this endeavour.