<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> <P> During 2003 (as camera phones were gaining popularity), in Europe some phones without cameras had support for MMS and external cameras that could be connected with a small cable or directly to the data port at the base of the phone . The external cameras were comparable in quality to those fitted on regular camera phones at the time, typically offering VGA resolution . </P> <P> In 2013 - 2014 Sony and other manufacturers announced add - on camera modules for smartphones called lens - style cameras . They have larger sensors and lenses than those in a camera phone but lack a viewfinder, display and most controls . They can be mounted to an Android or iOS phone or tablet and use its display and controls . Lens - style cameras include: </P>

When was the first camera phone released in the uk