<P> Phones usually store pictures and video in a directory called / DCIM in the internal memory . Some can store this media in external memory (Secure digital card or USB on the go pen drive). </P> <P> Camera phones can share pictures almost instantly and automatically via a sharing infrastructure integrated with the carrier network . Early developers including Philippe Kahn envisioned a technology that would enable service providers to "collect a fee every time anyone snaps a photo". The resulting technologies, Multimedia Messaging Service and Sha - Mail, were developed parallel to and in competition to open Internet - based mobile communication provided by GPRS and later 3G networks . </P> <P> The first commercial camera phone complete with infrastructure was the J - SH04, made by Sharp Corporation; it had an integrated CCD sensor, with the Sha - Mail (Picture - Mail in Japanese) infrastructure developed in collaboration with Kahn's LightSurf venture, and marketed from 2001 by J - Phone in Japan today owned by Softbank . The first commercial deployment in North America of camera phones was in 2004 . The Sprint wireless carriers deployed over one million camera phone manufactured by Sanyo and launched by the PictureMail infrastructure (Sha - Mail in English) developed and managed by LightSurf . </P> <P> While early phones had Internet connectivity, working web browsers and email - programs, the phone menu offered no way of including a photo in an email or uploading it to a web site . Connecting cables or removable media that would enable the local transfer of pictures were also usually missing . Modern smartphones have almost unlimited connectivity and transfer options with photograph attachment features . </P>

When did the first camera phone come out in america