Emergence of the Selfie Front Camera
Although many sources see the Sony Ericsson Z1010, unveiled in 2003, as the first camera phone to include a front camera, a study done in 2014 has uncovered that the first phone to feature a front camera was in fact the Kyocera VP-210. Unveiled in 1999, the VP-210, unlike conventional mobile phones that feature a back and front facing camera, only sported a single front facing 110,000-pixel camera that could take 2 images per second and send it through Japan's PHS mobile phone network system.
(Source: http://wirelesswatch.jp/2014/07/09/world-first-camera-phone-the-kyocera-vp-210/)
It is interesting to note that the motivation to integrate a camera into a mobile phone by Kyocera was not for the purpose of taking selfies but was actually to supplement the call and SMS capabilities of mobile phones with video call capabilities. Despite its poor resolution and small memory when compared to the present day, Kyocera were undoubtedly the first to drive the industry towards producing phones with front facing 'selfie-enabled' cameras.
Honorary mention must be made to another ousted contender to the title of first camera phone with selfie capabilities. The Sharp J-SH04 was released in November 2000 and sported a similar 110,000-pixel camera as the VP-210 but was featured as a back-facing camera. Although traditionally, a selfie is taken with a front-facing camera, the J-SH04 included a small mirror beside the back-facing camera allowing users to use it as a selfie camera and it definitely was marketed in that manner. Despite being designed more specifically for the purpose of taking selfies compared to the VP-210, the VP wins purely because it was unveiled early, giving the title of first selfie phone to Kyocera.
(Source: "Sharp J-SH04: World’s First Ever Phone With Integrated Camera". Digitizor Media & Web, Inc. Retrieved 26 August 2012.)
The Kyocera VP-210 (Top left), Sony Ericsson Z1010 (Top right) and the Sharp J-SH04 (Bottom)
(Sources: "Kyocera VP-210 CP+ 2011 (Jimmy Wales)" by Harryzilber - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kyocera_VP-210_CP%2B_2011_(Jimmy_Wales).jpg#/media/File:Kyocera_VP-210_CP%2B_2011_(Jimmy_Wales).jpg, http://www.nerdeky.com/history/sony-ericsson-z1010-–-world’s-first-phone-front-facing-camera, By Morio (photo taken by Morio) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons)
This development, following prior advancements which integrated camera technology with mobile phones, brought the selfie within hand's reach for many consumers. Instead of needing a separate, heavier camera, as was common at the time, anyone with such a phone could then simply snap a photo of themselves while on the move, and transmit the image to others.
As we know now, the battle for better phones that led to such a development has resulted, in the span of a mere 10 years, in smartphones with camera capabilities that are not only portable, able to rival some dedicated cameras and have both front- and back-facing lenses, but are also virtually always connected to the Internet. The high speed Internet connectivity of these devices have enabled the nearly instantaneous sharing of all images - including selfies - taken on the phones, and so both the phones and the selfies have become an ubiquitous part of human culture today.