As smartphone imaging gets better, the market for point-and-shoot cameras has evaporated. Perhaps sensing this shift in the wind, Canon has signed a patent-licensing deal with Microsoft where both companies will have easy access to each other’s technological secrets. Dour-minded individuals may say that this is just some legal mutual arse-covering which is commonplace in these litigious times. That’s probably true, but wouldn’t it be great if we saw Canon’s imaging technology wind up in a future generation of PureView device? After all, the company does need some new expertise after its last expert defected to the other side.
