July 16, 2009
Room to Grow for Ringbacks
Carriers and others in the wireless ecosystem might be craving killer entertainment content beyond ringtones, but RealNetworks says there’s still plenty of room for growth, especially when it comes to ringbacks. Wireless Week reports.
Awareness remains the No. 1 challenge for ringback tones, says Analisa Roberts, senior director, Global Product Management and Marketing at RealNetworks. Part of the problem is people hear ringback tones when they’re calling someone else, so it’s not as if the whole world can hear it.
In the United States, ringback tone penetration is about 9 percent, so it has a lot of room to grow. Ringtone penetration is harder to gauge than ringbacks because ringbacks reside on the carrier network, which is not the case with ringtones.
Roberts says she can’t reveal specifics, but RealNetworks is working with its carrier partners on some programs to help drive ringback awareness. Most carriers have fairly extensive ringback catalogs.
... According to IDC, ringback tones will overtake ringtones in 2010 and are poised to become the single largest revenue source for mobile entertainment.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/ringtonia/archives/2009/07/024096.htm