Nikon has won the race to become the first company to build a digital camera equipped with a Wi-Fi transmitter. The firm promised that the device will begin shipping commercially by the end of the month. 

The Coolpix P1 and Coolpix P2 cameras have 802.11b/g transmitters built in, allowing them to send pictures to a PC or wireless-enabled printer.

"In addition to USB connectivity that makes it easy to hook them up to a computer or other peripherals, wireless transfer allows the photographer to send pictures from the memory card or the camera's internal memory direct to a selected computer on command," said a Nikon spokesman.

"Wireless shooting automatically transfers each picture to a selected computer as soon as it is shot."

Bill Gates first showed off a Nikon Wi-Fi equipped camera in a famously failed demonstration last January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 

The Nikon P1 and P2 devices are compact cameras weighing less than 170 grams. They can shoot at 8.0 and 5.1 megapixels respectively and have a 3.5x Zoom-Nikkor lens.

Kodak had promised a Wi-Fi camera for June of this year, but delayed its launch. The manufacturer's Easyshare-One camera will be released in October.