1999: World First Camera Phone the Kyocera VP-210 was released

1999

The VP-210 was released in May 1999 and used a single 110,000-pixel front-facing camera to send two photos per second via Japan's PHS mobile phone network system. It has a capacity of 20 JPEG photographs. The camera phone was the same size as comparable modern mobile phones, but it had a big camera lens and a 5 cm (2 inch) color TFT display capable of displaying 65,000 colors and processing two video frames per second. The 155-gram (5.5 oz.) camera could also snap 20 images and send them via e-mail, with the camera phone selling for 40,000 yen, approximately $325 in 1999 (Wireless Watch Japan 2014).

Wireless Watch Japan. 2014. “World First Camera Phone the Kyocera VP-210.” Wireless Watch Japan - Mobile in Tokyo. July 9, 2014. http://wirelesswatch.jp/2014/07/09/world-first-camera-phone-the-kyocera-vp-210/.

Image Source: http://wirelesswatch.jp/2014/07/09/world-first-camera-phone-the-kyocera-vp-210/