2001 BBC Report About Cameras on Mobile Phones

A fascinating segment from a 2001 BBC News report focuses on the possibility of cameras being added to mobile phones and whether or not this could be a reality. While this question feels incredibly anachronistic, this was cutting-edge technology at the time. Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones investigated what spurred this idea, how texting led to phone cameras in Britain, and how affordable it would be.

Mobile phones are changing the way that people communicate. Britons now send a billion texts each month, but the popularity of the SMS text messaging service took phone manufacturers by surprise. As sales of mobile phones begin to drop off, manufacturers are hoping that a new generation of handset – which can take and send digital photographs – might give the industry a boost, and become the next big craze among young people.