Ringtone trends for 2008
This brand new year is already well under way with January almost drawing to a close, and whatever ringtone you and your phone rang in the New Year with, we wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2008!
So, what is the buzz on ringtones and ringtone trends this year? (Brace yourself for some statistics.)
According to recent reports, ringtone sales in the UK and US markets have been toning down a bit. Statistics published in the Netherlands’ Telecom Paper shows that only 3.4% of mobile users in the UK purchased ringtones in October 2007, compared to 9.3% in the US (down from 10% in January 2007).
Despite this decline, it is still valued as a $3.5 billion global industry, accounting for about 10% of the worldwide music sales and hogging 70% of the revenue of mobile content downloads.
The continuing sales of ringtones are definitely helped along by the fact that some mobile phone ringtone providers have made provisions which enable users to actually preview ringtones before downloading them on to their handsets. Another new service from ringtone providers that will continue to help drive sales, is to permit users to simply specify the name of the song they wish to download as opposed to having to remember the ringtone code for that particular service provider.
India is one of the countries with the steadiest annual growth rate in mobile phone penetration. Recent reports estimate that the mobile phone value added services market in India is worth $125 million, with the largest chunk of these services being the ringtone segment. According to the findings, 80% of that can be attributed to ringtone downloads, with mobile phone games making between 2 – 8%.
It is interesting to note how various cultures influence ringtone trends and sales. Japan, the country famous for pioneering the concept of Karaoke, has embraced the latest innovation in ringtones being turned into “sing tonesâ€. Here the user’s voice is recorded on to a popular soundtrack. But before you groan at the prospect of being subjected to someone’s off-key singing every time their phone rings, despair not. With the help of software, the user’s voice recording is tuned in to sound appropriate and in sync. Once that is done, the “sing tone†can then be transferred on to a mobile phone handset, just like any other ringtone transmitted through a wireless device. (Source: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/49637)
Globally, people are increasingly becoming aware of the plight of the environment. This redhot green consciousness has spilled over into the mobile ringtone market. Last month, the American-based Centre for Biological Diversity – which offers free endangered species ringtones – celebrated the 100,000th download from its endangered species ringtone website, rareearthtones.org
Although it melts our hearts that so many phones out there growl like a polar bear or howl like an endangered Mexican gray wolf, and although we also think that it is an ingenious tactic to promote awareness and shine the spotlight on the extinction crisis facing so many animal and bird species, we can’t help but think that the Centre may have missed out on a great opportunity. Instead of offering the ringtones for download for free, perhaps they should have asked for a small donation towards helping these animals?
After all, if people are willing to shell out for a ringtone of King Juan Carlos of Spain asking Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez “Why don’t you shut up?†(or rather “Por qué no te callas!”) – scoring 500,000 downloads in its first week – we are sure they would have been willing to pay to have their phone emiting the soothing sounds of an endangered species.
At least all of these above trends and statistics demonstrate that the mobile phone ringtone as we know, love (or ocassionally loathe) and download it, needn’t be placed on the list of endangered techno trends just yet.