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We have witnessed a mushroom growth in the wireless telecommunication industry over the last decade, and the mobile phone itself has added newer dimensions to our socio-cultural life.
Every new year, the consumer electronics market is flooded with a flurry of fantastic handsets
offering awe-inspiring features. As mobile manufacturing giants vie to out compete each other, the appetite of the ever-hungry consumer keeps increasing.

Of all the features and technology that has been added to the portfolio of mobile phones, the integration of digital cameras has been the masterstroke. Ever since the first commercial camera phone - the J-SHO4 ( designed by Sharp Corporation in collaboration with Phillipe Kahn) - made its appearance in November 2000, mobile phones have undergone an evolutionary transformation in their make-up and character.

Camera phones, in all shapes and sizes, are there everywhere today with projected sales for 2008 of over 1 billion units worldwide. Affordable, convenient and portable - are perhaps the key factors that have underlined the success of camera phones over the traditional camera. Unlike the camera that is brandished on special events to archive memorable moments, camera phones are popularly used to document the fleeting everyday life : moments of surprise, pleasure or indulgence. The ability to capture and share media from anywhere at anytime makes the camera phone a potential winner.

The surreptitious nature of the camera phone has turned many mobile phone users into real-time photojournalists and the banal everyday has become visually newsworthy. On the flip side, the ubiquitous presence of the camera phone is prone to such abuse as voyeurism, infringement of privacy and copyright violation.

However, Camera phones have come to occupy a unique position and have created an indelible impression on our contemporary sensibility. Imaging and multimedia features on mobile phones are becoming highly nuanced and the future will see handsets that are literally digital studios. The CyberShot series from Sony Ericsson, Nokia's 'multimedia computers' in the N-Series, the colossal 10 megapixel 'wow-phones' from Samsung - just keep your eyes and your camera open!