Comments on: 2006 Predictions 5 and 6

By: Tamzin Taylor

Tamzin Taylor — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 04:35:09 +0000

With the increase in smart phones, people can easily cut their own tones from their pc. The main buyers of tones (kids between 10 & 18) are clicking onto this & are actively ripping tracks from the pc onto the handset.

And then they are sharing to all their mates at school via Bluetooth.

What will keep tones alive are creative pricing models, such as contextual bundles eg: ‘download the true tone & we’ll email you the full track video clip’, or ‘subscribe to a monthly fee of X for all the tones you can eat’ or ‘buy a tone for a cheaper price & have it expire in 4 days’.

If the kids can get it for free, you need to come up with some pretty inventive ways to show some value

By: William Volk

William Volk — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 07:04:54 +0000

The thing that may go away with Ringtones are the phony ‘FREE’ deals that are really subscriptions. The misuse of ‘FREE’ is abusive, and the ‘hidden’ nature of the subscriptions is an abuse of the customers.

Ringtones on their own WON’T go away, but the deception will. One driver will be the move to digital-audio ‘mastertones.’

Finally it is worth noting that when customers upgrade phones, the ringtone purchasing cycle begins anew … hence the growth in Mastertones.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 16:30:09 +0000

What is the source of the data and conclusion that ringtone market is imploding?

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 18:52:35 +0000

Based on Tiger Telematics’ sudden lack of over-hyping press releases after the Swedish Mafia revelations, as well as their nose-diving stock price (think there might be a correlation?), prediction #6 might be the first one to come true in 2006.