Abstract

In 2000, Sharp launched the first mobile phone equipped with a camera in Japan. The SH-04 for J- Phone ¹ instantly matured from a gadget ² to a standard feature in mobile communication. The advances in mobile-camera technology—six mega-pixel cameras with high resolution in native video format, such as Nokia’s N86 (2009), LG Viewty Smart (2009), or Sony Ericsson C905 Plus) (2008)—were driven by a marketing strategy to advance mobile phone sales. While the first generation iPhone was launched in 2007, it was only with the update to the iPhone 3GS two years later that a high-resolution video feature (QuickTime 480p recording format) was introduced. Prior to the iPhone, handset manufacturers like Motorola or Nokia were dominating the market in terms of volume and innovation. Nokia’s N6680 not only featured a 1.3 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss lens, but also had video editing capabilities. In 2012 Nokia launched the PureView and Lumina Smartphones, which ship with forty-one megapixels and full high definition (HD) 1080p video. The omnipresence of mobile camera phones and smartphones means that accessibility to moving-image technology has significantly increased; however, as yet, the development of visual literacy has not reached this level.