Connecting with the world around us seems easier than ever in today’s society.  With cell phones playing a big part in our normal communication pathway, the features on cell phones have provided many communication platforms for people to use.  Features on phones consist of texting, sending emails, social media apps, and so much more. One of the most important features in today's society is the camera.  Based on a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, Michael Zhang states, “The study found that 92% of smartphone users use their phones to take pictures” (Zhang, 2015).  This statistic shows the popularity of cell phone cameras used in today’s society.  This same study also showed that the camera and texting were the top features of cell phone users with internet browsing, sending photos, and e-mailing following (Zhang, 2015).  People are not just sending messages to stay connected anymore, but they are also using pictures for selfies, social media, and other related phenomena (Triggs, 2017).  With many different ways to communicate with pictures and the gaining popularity, knowing the evolution of the camera phone is important.  The evolution of the camera can be followed by knowing the creation of the first cell phone, the history of the first camera phone, and the camera phone's technology updates.

 

Creation of the first cell phone

The creation of the first cell phone was the start of today’s communication era.  The telephone within itself opened many communication routes for people to stay connected.  The telephone made communication faster compared to the rival of paper and pencil and easier to use than the telegraph.  According to the History website, “Telegraphs revolutionized long-distance communication” (History, 2019).  So, when the cell phone was created, the whole communication world was changed from that moment on.  People were now able to stay connected with others no matter a person’s location and it made it easier to do so.

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From the sidewalks of Manhattan in 1973, Martin Cooper took a stroll down the road while making a call on the first mobile phone (Seward, 2013). Stopping at sixth avenue near a 900 MHz base station, Martin Cooper demonstrated his work by calling his rival at Bell’s lab, Joel Engel, with a particular message stating to his competitor that he had successfully made a phone call on a portable device (Cooper, 2003).  Cooper commented, “Joel, I'm calling you from a 'real' cellular telephone. A portable handheld telephone" (Cooper, 2003).  This call not only confirmed to his competitor but also to the world, that Martin Cooper had successfully made the first portable phone; however, this technology did not take off until 10 years later (Seward, 2013).  Mobile devices were originally used by businessmen and not to the general public consumers (Digital, 2013).  When the approval from the United States Federal Communications Commission was confirmed, cell phones were then able to be used for consumers with DynaTACs becoming available (CBC, 2013).  This was the start of the consumer ear and cellphones.

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First Camera Phone

Cellphones becoming popular with the general public, new features that the cell phones could provide started evolving.  A camera on the phone became one of these features with many companies claiming they created the first.  Kyocera and Samsung were two such competitors.  In 1999, Kyocera launched a phone with a camera called Kyocera VP-210 that was able to be sold to the general public (Callaham, 2019).  In 2000, Samsung created their camera phone called the SCH-V200 (Callaham, 2019).  With similar qualities, both phones stored up to 20 pictures but the SCH-V200 had 0.35MP compared to 0.11MP on the Kyocera VP-210 (Callaham, 2019). 

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However, with both companies’ prototypes underway, the credit for the first picture on a camera phone was given to a man named Philippe Kahn (Magid, 2017).  In 1997, Philippe Kahn was waiting in the hospital for his daughter, Sonia, to be born (Magid, 2017). Wanting to send pictures to his family and friends, Kahn started connecting his camera and flip phone together (Magid, 2017). Once accomplished, Kahnwas able to take a picture of his newborn daughter and send it off his cellphone (Magid, 2017).  This moment credited Philippe Kahn as the first person to transmit a photo from a cellphone successfully giving him credit for the first cell phone.

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 Camera’s technology upgrades

From the first picture taken off a cell phone, the camera phone gained much popularity with consumers and more advancements were required to keep up with the consumers' demands and interests.  Camera phone companies competed with one another which drove to technological advancements in the camera.  One of these first advancements was the camera autofocus.  In 2005, the SCH-V770 was introduced to the consumer market with autofocus and 3x optical zoom (Wan, 2012).  This helped the camera quality and launched for more features and improvements in autofocus.  Flash was another feature that made its way into the realm of improvement with the camera. One phone in 2002 that came out with flash along with self-timer and various filter effects was Sanyo SCP-5300(Hill, 2013). Other improvements such as megapixels have also played a key factor in camera phone updates. The generation of smartphones demonstrates this perfectly through their progress of newer models over the years. Starting with their original iPhone in 2007, this cellphone had a camera with 2MP compared to the iPhone XS Max, in 20018, which had 12MP (Bankmycell, 2019).  Apple now released its newest iPhone that has the same number of megapixels as last year's model, iPhone XS Max, but now has three cameras in one phone:  Ultra-wide camera, wide camera, and telephoto camera (Apple, 2019).  With the dual camera action of the iPhone XS Max, the newest iPhone 11 Pro has proven that the importance of cameras on the cellphone has changed the whole design of the cellphones today.  

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Knowing the history of the cell phone, the history of the first camera phone, and the camera phone’s technology updates helps people understand the development over the years to further continue our connection with others. People want to stay connected and with the push for “bigger and better”, the camera phone has now become an active part of today’s communication.  According to Amanda Ray, “In recent years, the purpose of the cell phone has shifted from a verbal communication tool to a multimedia tool” (Ray, 2015). Not only can you stay connected with people through texting but now stay connected through pictures, such as social media and more.  Like Fred Barnard stated, “A picture is worth a thousand words” (Grammarist, 2014).

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References

Apple. (2019). iPhone11 Pro. Retrieved from Apple: https://www.apple.com/iphone-11-pro/

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Bankmycell. (2019). Explore the iOS and iPhone evolution timeline. Retrieved from Bankmycell: https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/iphone-evolution-timeline-chart

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Callaham, J. (2019, June 1). The first camera phone was sold 20 years ago, and its not what you might expect. Retrieved from Android Authority: https://www.androidauthority.com/first-camera-phone-anniversary-993492/

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CBC. (2013, April 3). 5 major moments in cellphone history. Retrieved from CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/5-major-moments-in-cellphone-history-1.1407352https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/5-major-moments-in-cellphone-history-1.1407352

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Cooper, M. (2003, April 21). A Chat with the man behind mobiles. (M. Shiels, Interviewer) Retrieved from BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/2963619.stm

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Digital, B. T. (2013, April 3). Call that launched the mobile era. Retrieved from Belfast Telegraph Digital: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/call-that-launched-the-mobile-era-29170824.html

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Grammarist. (2014). A picture is worth a thousand words. Retrieved from Grammarist: https://grammarist.com/proverb/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words/

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Hill, S. (2013, August 11). From J-Phone to Lumia 1020: A complete history of the camera phone. Retrieved from Digital Trends: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/camera-phone-history/

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Magid, L. (2017, June 8). A baby girl and the camera phone were born 20 years ago. Retrieved from Fullpower: https://www.fullpower.com/news/2017/a-baby-girl-and-the-camera-phone-were-born-20-years-ago/

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Ray, A. (2015, January 22). The history and evolution of cell phones. Retrieved from The Art Insitutues: https://www.artinstitutes.edu/about/blog/the-history-and-evolution-of-cell-phones

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Seward, Z. M. (2013, April 3). The first mobile phone call was made 40 years ago today. Retrieved from The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/the-first-mobile-phone-call-was-made-40-years-ago-today/274611/

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Triggs, R. (2017, June 16). A little History of the smartphone camera. Retrieved from Andriod Authority: https://www.androidauthority.com/little-history-smartphone-camera-776711/

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Wan, h. (2012, February 28). Evolution of the cameraphone: From Sharp J-SH04 to Nokia 808 Pureview. Retrieved from Digistrat: https://www.hoista.net/post/18437919296/evolution-of-the-cameraphone-from-sharp-j-sh04-to

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Zhang, M. (2015, February 12). The importance of cameras in the smartphone war. Retrieved from PetaPixel: https://petapixel.com/2015/02/12/importance-cameras-smartphone-war/