The Year the Camera Became Normal

Today we take it for granted that a phone takes pictures. In the early 2000s, that was far from true: in 2002, according to data from our archive, only 3% of the mobile phones released that year had a built-in camera. One of the few was the Nokia 7650, among the first Symbian phones from Nokia equipped with a camera — an exception, not the norm.

Then something changed quickly. In 2003 the share rose to 31%: almost one model in three. The following year, in 2004, came the decisive leap — 73%. From that point on, the camera was no longer a novelty worth announcing on the front page; it was simply there, like the screen or the keypad.

2002	3% of models
2003	31% of models
2004	73% of models
2005	77% of models
2006	82% of models

The data covers only the archive's entries catalogued as mobile phones (excluding PDAs and navigation devices, which are catalogued separately). Within four years, the built-in camera went from a technical exception to a taken-for-granted component — probably the fastest change told by this data, even faster than the arrival of the touchscreen a few years later.

Want to see which 2003 models were most talked about by those who actually used them? We cover that in 2003, a snapshot of the year.