Many devices include electronic cameras built into or integrated into them. For instance, mobile phones frequently include electronic cameras which are included in their hardware; the ones that are occasionally known as camera phones. Other tiny electronic devices (particularly those utilised for communication) like PDAs, PCs regularly contain a built-in electronic camera, as do some digital camcorders . Because of the limited storage facility and general stress on convenience instead of image-quality, the overwhelming majority of these integrated or converged devices store pictures in the lousy but compact JPEG file type. Mobile phones incorporating electronic digital cameras were introduced in Japan in 2001 by J-Phone. In 2003 camera phones outsold stand-alone electronic cameras, and in 2006 they outsold all film-based cameras and electronic cameras combined.
 
These camera phones reached a a number of billion devices sold in a time span of only 5 years, and by 2007 over 50% of the installed base of all cell-phones were camera phones. Integrated cameras have a tendency to be at the lowest end of the size of digicams in technical directions, for example the resolution which is quite less as compared to other digital cameras, optical quality which is also low in comparison to other digicams, and capability to use accessories. With quick development nevertheless, the distance between conventional digital compact cameras and camera phones is constantly closing, and high-end camera phones are competitive with low-end stand-alone electronic digital cameras of the same generation.