Over the past two decades or so we have seen many technological breakthroughs whether it was the introduction of social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram or video chat which has become an essential thanks to COVID-19. However, we can not leave out the camera phone, the advancements it has made over the past 20+ years, and the competition that drove these advancements.
It all started in June of 2000 when Sharp released a J-Phone that is credited as the first phone with a built-in camera. The J-SH04, which was released in Japan, took pictures at 0.11 megapixels and allowed users to share photos electronically. A few months later, in November of 2000, Samsung joined in on the fun, releasing the SCH-V200 in South Korea. The SCH-V200 could take pictures at a slightly higher quality than the J-SH04 at 0.35 megapixels but photos could not be shared electronically as users had to hook their phone up to their computer in order to obtain their photos. Additionally, the SCH-V200 only allowed users to take 20 photos at a time, requiring the photos to be uploaded to a computer after reaching the photo limit.
Two years after Sharp and Samsung introduced the camera phone, it finally made its way to the United States via the Sanyo SCP-5300 from Sprint. The 2002 SCP-5300 took photos as large as 640 x 480 pixels, had flash, white balance control, a self timer, digital zoom, and basic filters. It did not take long for the United States, or the entire world, to fall in love with the camera phone with over 80 million camera phones sold worldwide by 2003.
Looking to outdo themselves and capitalize on the camera phone's popularity, Sprint released the PM8920 in July of 2004 which took pictures as large as 1280 x 960 pixels and even had a separate button just for taking pictures and operating the camera. Most importantly, the PM8920 only cost $150 as opposed to the SCP-5300 which was priced at $400 a year prior. This significant price drop made camera phones more accessible and affordable, allowing everyday people to get their hands on the rapidly growing technology which in turn increased the demand and its popularity.
In 2005, Nokia joined the competition, releasing the Nokia N90 in their attempts to become the number one camera phone in the United States. The Nokia N90 featured a built-in camera that had flash, autofocus, and a rotating screen which resembled the camcorder that people were very familiar with.
Fast forward a few years and as the competition to be the best raged on, a new company entered the mix: Apple and their revolutionary iPhone. When the iPhone first debuted in June of 2007, the camera quality was inferior to many others we had seen in years prior but the touch screen, which was Apple's main focus, won people over and as we all know, the iPhone eventually not only caught up but is now the number one phone in the United States. In fact, according to Statista.com, over 40 percent of smartphone owners in America use an iPhone and it has been that way, with the percentage slowly increasing annually, since 2014.
All this competition played a big role in the rapid development of the camera phone. In fact, in 2013 the Chicago Sun-Times laid off all 28 of their full-time photographers preaching a need for more video and multimedia content. As a replacement for these 28 photographers, the Chicago Sun-Times used freelancers but also made their reporters go through basic iPhone training, relying on them to capture their own content for their stories using their smartphones. That speaks volumes to the power of the camera phone and the iPhone in particular. Keep in mind that this was eight years ago because it goes without saying that smartphone cameras are way more advanced now.
Since it was first released in 2000, the camera phone has come a long way. It has been an essential for all phones for over a decade now and continues to improve annually in terms of quality, accessibility, and features. Everything seems to happen so fast nowadays and the camera phone was no exception. There was money to be made, people to satisfy, and the competition between all these cell phone giants helped speed along the advancements of a technology we have all relied on and familiarized ourselves with.
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