December 12, 2003
Waiting for the Phone to Bark
Wired has an article on the Ringtone market in the US and some of the services that let cell-phone customers create just about any kind of ring tone they want. Services provided by companies such as Xingtones - allowing subscribers to download ring tones to their mobile phones by using their carriers' wireless Web capabilities, Modtones - which sells MIDI versions of popular songs through several operators, and wireless carrier Sprint, who's ringtone offer is limited to what they or their partners make available.
"Ring tones are a growing business for cell-phone providers. According to Seamus McAteer, principal analyst at Zelos Group, sales of ring tones will top $1.5 billion worldwide in 2003, and nearly $100 million in the United States". (In my files I have a different figures from The Mobile Data Association, predicting $ 120.7 million worth of ringtones will be sold in 2003, up from $ 69 million in 2002.)
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