A method for rapidly displaying pictures on an electronic device receives an identifier of a picture to be displayed. If processed data of the picture exists in a second memory of the electronic device, the processed data is retrieved from the second memory, and the picture is displayed. Otherwise, if processed data of the picture does not exist in the second memory, raw data of the picture is retrieved from a first memory of the electronic device, and the processed data is generated by encoding the raw data. The generated processed data are stored and the picture is displayed.