Ringtones, often taken as a technology of past is still one of the most rewarding forms of mobile content. This conclusion was borne out by recent news from Jamba that will spend $100 million on advertising this year, according to Mobile Entertainment, which does a good job at checking up on the industry. Although declining as a proportion of Jamba’s sales ringtone sales are still increasing in absolute terms, and realtone comprise 40 percent of an average month’s downloads on Jamster.
There was a serious shake-out in the direct-to-consumer industry, but it resulted in consolidation of the industry rather than the end of it. A lot of that is because of strong growth in developing markets, but top D2C players have other things to offer. “Javier Perez Dolset, CEO of Zed, says: “In five years between 40 and 50 per cent of people will access the net from a mobile device. So companies like Zed will have an advantage. Remember, we have agreements with more than 130 operators and we know how to make portals or apps work across hundreds of devices.” Buongiorno is looking at using content as a reward for topping up prepaid cards with the idea that it reduces churn.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
This surprised me quite a bit,mobile games have now overtaken ring-tones as a revenue generator in the UK .
“UK customers spent a total of £83 million (US$165 million) on mobile games in the first quarter of this year, compared with £76 million on ringtones, and just £23 million on the much-hyped mobile music sector.”
I wonder if this has anything to do with recent decisions by T-Mobile and 3 to offer ‘all-you-can-eat’ subscription charges for data downloads. One of the key barriers in the past has been uncertainty over download processes and charges.
Of course, another thing that’s stopped people downloading mobile games is that they’re generally perceived to be a bit rubbish. Once most people have snapped up Tetris and Pac-Man they come to a grinding halt, assaulted by far too many poor movie tie-ins and dull quiz games.
I genuinely believe things are changing though. This year has seen a huge number of extremely good titles. I’d recommend Digital Chocolate’s fraught puzzler Pyramid Bloxx and its fun social sim, Office Wars, a cute little mini-game-based title, filled with comic touches. Gameloft has loads of fantastic titles including platformers Pirates of the Seven Seas and Shrek the Third, both offering lovely scenic detail and compelling puzzles. There are some great driving games, too, including Driver: LA Undercover, which makes a decent stab at the gangsta adventure, and Fast and Furious: Fugitive, filled with, ironically, Driver-esque chases and challenges.
I’ve also heard that the God of War title is stunning. Oh and Worms 2007 is absolutely essential.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
This surprised me quite a bit, mobile games have now overtaken ring-tones as a revenue generator in the UK
“UK customers spent a total of £83 million (US$165 million) on mobile games in the first quarter of this year, compared with £76 million on ringtones, and just £23 million on the much-hyped mobile music sector.”
I wonder if this has anything to do with recent decisions by T-Mobile and 3 to offer ‘all-you-can-eat’ subscription charges for data downloads. One of the key barriers in the past has been uncertainty over download processes and charges.
Of course, another thing that’s stopped people downloading mobile games is that they’re generally perceived to be a bit rubbish. Once most people have snapped up Tetris and Pac-Man they come to a grinding halt, assaulted by far too many poor movie tie-ins and dull quiz games.
I genuinely believe things are changing though. This year has seen a huge number of extremely good titles. I’d recommend Digital Chocolate’s fraught puzzler Pyramid Bloxx and its fun social sim, Office Wars, a cute little mini-game-based title, filled with comic touches. Gameloft has loads of fantastic titles including platformers Pirates of the Seven Seas and Shrek the Third, both offering lovely scenic detail and compelling puzzles. There are some great driving games, too, including Driver: LA Undercover, which makes a decent stab at the gangsta adventure, and Fast and Furious: Fugitive, filled with, ironically, Driver-esque chases and challenges.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Make your mobile phone as unique and different as you are. Most wireless handsets allow you to personalize your handset by changing the display theme of your phone, font
style and size, or even change the background banner to say your name or
other message. You can also separate your phone from the pack by selecting
a cool background photograph or wallpaper, adding a cool V-Skin, or by
using Ringtones or Ringback tones.
Verizon Wireless customers can personalize their handsets by changing
the Display Settings and Sound Settings options from the Settings & Tools
menu on their Verizon Wireless handsets.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- November 17th, 2006
- 5:47 pm
Phonezoo.com launches today, offering user generated content and a free service for personalized ringtones.
I saw a slideshow and a demo of how it works. It’s fabulous, anyone can open their own free account under “My Zoo” and save ringtones or music that they’ve uploaded from their hard disk - and share them with their cellmates, (family and friends). Friends can in turn upload their friends music to their own phone, they can even select which part of the song they want. And the Phonezoo community can rate and comment on the ringtones people have posted.
In their own words:
The company’s technology combines user-generated content and the collective intelligence of the Phonezoo community to deliver a ringtone service poised to disrupt a $600MM market in the U.S.
Phonezoo doesn’t charge for ringtones and you don’t need to buy any conversion software. With Phonezoo you are using the existing music and audio files in your own library, or files that are publicly available on the Internet, so there are no charges and no copyright issues.
Ringtones are fun and personalized. Phonezoo makes creating and sharing ringtones fun. Consumers can compose unique ringtones from any segment of any song or audio file they own; and they can create completely new and different ringtones from any sound source.
Phonezoo makes finding and sharing great ringtones a breeze. Phonezoo’s service gives users the ability to tap into the collective creative power of the Phonezoo community to find highly-rated, unique ringtones. Users can share their creations with friends, family and other Phonezoo community members.
Ringtones still a lucrative mobile content (Italy)
