Provided is an apparatus for managing image data, by which the image data transferred to a mobile device from an image capturing device connected to the mobile device is managed. The apparatus may include a first controller located in a native layer for communicating with a java layer, a second controller located in a java layer for communicating with the native layer, and a plurality of ring-buffer type shared memories in which the image data transferred from the image capturing device is stored. The first controller may store the image data in the shared memory at a first state according to the order of the shared memories and may change the state information of the shared memory to a second state when the image data is completely stored. The second controller may read the image data stored in the shared memories at the second state according to the order of the shared memories and may change the state information of the shared memory to the first state when the image data is completely read.