| Camera cellular phones have undergone tremendous | | | | The first camera phone prototype was called |
| change over the years. When they were launched, | | | | "intellect". It was developed by Daniel A. Henderson in |
| they were just a fancy add-on to mobile phones | | | | 1993. Rapid progress was made in this field in the |
| rather than a fully functional and useful tool. But | | | | 1990s, with companies such as Kodak, Canon, and |
| today the print quality of the pictures has | | | | Olympus developing new camera phone models. But |
| considerably improved and the memory capacity of | | | | these were more like digital cameras equipped with |
| the cell phones has also increased. That means the | | | | cell phone connectivity, not cell phones with camera |
| user can take more better quality pictures than | | | | option that we see today. Apple Corporation, a |
| before. At present, the print quality of photos | | | | habitual pioneer, spotted the market for cell phones |
| snapped with top class mobile phone cameras is | | | | with cameras. The company launched Apple |
| comparable to that of digital cameras. | | | | Videophone/PDA in 1995. But it did not become an |
| All the major cellular handset brands such as | | | | instant craze among people as the company had |
| Samsung, Nokia, and Motorola have different versions | | | | imagined. |
| of the camera cellular phone. In fact, the use of such | | | | Sharp Corporation and Kyocera started to develop |
| phones has become so common that people have | | | | camera cellular phones in separate projects in 1997. |
| started expecting a camera as part of the "standard" | | | | But the technologies used by both companies were |
| mobile phone accessories. As a result, all the cell | | | | different. The credit of developing the first |
| phones in the higher range come equipped with digital | | | | commercial camera cellular phone goes to Sharp. It |
| cameras. The ease of transferring the photos to | | | | was known as J-SH04 or simply J-Phone and was |
| other mobiles through blue tooth, computers or data | | | | launched in Japan in 2001. It was exported to the |
| cable has made sharing photos easy and fun. | | | | USA, one year later. |
| Camera Cellular Phones: Past And Present | | | | The growth in popularity and functionality of cell |
| The idea of a camera integrated with a phone, or | | | | phone with attached digital camera has been rapid |
| the other way around, is older than most people | | | | during the past six years. The clarity of the images |
| think. Some of the patents of the phone-camera | | | | depends on the pixel count of the camera. All |
| combo were registered as far back as the 1960s. But | | | | cameras having more than 2 mega-pixels of image |
| what was an innovative, but impractical idea began to | | | | resolution can provide good print quality. Samsung has |
| see the light of feasibility only in 1990s. By this time, | | | | several types of camera phones, which are stylish |
| the use of cell phones had become very popular. | | | | and affordable. Other companies such as Nokia and |
| Also, digital cameras were becoming affordable and | | | | Motorola also roll out a number of mobile phones |
| were replacing the conventional cameras. Cell phones | | | | equipped with digital cameras, every year. But the |
| are smaller and sleeker than conventional phones and | | | | reliability and design elegance associated with |
| are electronically more suitable to host the digital | | | | Samsung camera cellular phones make them a better |
| camera hardware. | | | | choice. |