What are Ringtones?

Ringtones are melodic sounds a cellular or cell phone makes when an incoming call or message arrives. Since cellular phones are significantly more sophisticated than landline phones, ringtones can be personalized to suit the owner's personal taste. A variety of ringtones have appealed to consumers, increasing the handset saleability.

Why use Ringtones?

There are a number of reasons consumers use distinct ringtones.

• Distinguish Callers - Advanced feature sets allow for different sounds to signify different callers.
• Identification - When you are in a meeting and a phone rings you will know if its yours without having to look.
• Fun - Let's face it, having a cell phone with personality and character is appealing to general consumers.

Types of Ringtones

Typically two different types of ringtones:

• Monophonic - these tones are simple tones, most commonly compatible with today's cell phones. The majority of cell phones can only make a single tone at al time. The monophonic ringtone tune is comprised of a series of sequential tones at different frequencies.
• Polyphonic - Polyphonic tones are played on cellular phones that have the capability of playing up to 16 separate tones at once. The combination of tones creates a harmonic melody. Polyphonic ringtones are more musical than a monophonic ringtone. Newer phones support polyphonic ringtones.

It is likely that future cell phones will be capable of producing musical ringtones of CD quality.

Our thanks to Sharon Housely of NotePage,Inc. which develops SMS, alphnumeric paging and wireless messaging software solutions.

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