April 24, 2003
The ringtone market remains a surprise to many
In an interesting article entitled «Remixing Ringtones» dated April 23 in TheFeature.com, Steve Wallage writes about the ringtone market and how difficult it is to measure as it is so fragmented by a multitude of small suppliers. And though it is still very much dominated by the music charts, new applications are emerging.
In the US, Moviso TruTones offers ringtones with the voices of more than 70 celebrities of current and legendary stars of movie, television, sports, music and comedy. And Moviso's FXTones, offers more than 60,000 different sound effects for downloading on cell phones.
Innovative ideas have emerged, such as karaoke applications offered by Japanese ringtone providers, allowing subscribers to 'practice' songs. This service has been widened to include images, and users can send up to four photos which can be 'watched' while the audio clip is playing.
The ringtone market will also be helped by new distribution opportunities such as mobile prepaid cards for ringtones to be sold in the US by Moviso, through more than 6,000 stores including 7-Eleven, Wherehouse Music, and other regional retailers and leading wireless operators. [photo from mobile-secrets.com]
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