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A couple of weeks ago we asked the co-founder of tonethis about their application that lets users create, share and download ringtones, wallpapers and videos. Today we follow up with some excellent insight into Raj Singh’s views on the future of the ringtone/ wallpaper market. So if push-ringers, vibration tones and vibe-videotones are your fancy then read on!

What do you see as the future for ringtones/ wallpapers? DIY (as facilitated by tonethis) or commercially sold (i.e. from carriers?)
Singh: The carriers and the off-deck content providers are in a tough spot; their revenues have begun to go flat if not declining. Besides providing a great user interface, the iPhone is going to teach users that they can sideload content, meaning loading the content onto your phone from your PC - they are going to do this through iTunes.

As more and more phones are becoming USB enabled and with laptop purchasing volume growing meaning more Bluetooth at the PC, it has become easier and easier to copy content from your desktop to your mobile device. This has traditionally been considered leakage by premium mobile content providers but they are very quickly realizing that they need to embrace sideloading.

The way to embrace it is to offer premium content at the desktop in either a credit or subscription based model through a desktop application. This is something we have been actively exploring with ToneThis - we are partnering with premium brands to distribute their content through the desktop, like iTunes does with music and now ringtones.

Carriers, I know are also exploring this. We previously had conversations with some former MVNOs about distributing the carrier catalogue through ToneThis at the desktop - this is something they can’t ignore. There will be a percentage of folks who will continue to purchase content through the carrier catalogue but there will be a growing percentage of folks who will adopt sideloading.

Do you see ringtones/ wallpapers developing further (like when mono ringtones went to polyphonic), such as video ring tones?
Singh: Originally, I didn’t think you could evolve ringtones but I’m constantly proved wrong. Ringbacks have obviously done well and video ringbacks are on the horizon. Push ringers, as well as push video ringers, I think are brilliant since it’s an incredible form of expression; hard to deploy but a great idea.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you see vibration tones becoming part of the ringtone; Immersion is already demonstrating some of this. Push vibe-videotones would probably follow. Who knows, maybe ringtones will eventually be pulled from our online music catalogue at random. One thing to keep in mind, I remember a hit ringtone in the UK 4 years ago was the silent ringtone, you just didn’t want to hear the phone ringing from certain people - simplicity usually wins.

As for wallpapers, we are already starting to see animated flash content. I’m sure this will become more interactive and more rich.

As DIY ringtones/ wallpapers continue to get popular do you see content owners complaining about copyright at all?
Singh: Content providers are already complaining. Most do-it-yourself ringtones and wallpapers are classified as leakage. Regarding, copyright, there are really two issues. The first is whether it’s fair use to make your own mobile content, the second is the sharing and publishing aspect.

Three years ago, fair use for mobile content creation was a bit grey but over the past year, it appears to be less grey - you can create a “derivative work” for personal use from content that you own. As for sharing and publishing, we promote ToneThis for users to create ringtones from publicly licensed content, most of which tends to be independent content. We actually provide music from independent artists and creative-commons licensed photos from Flickr.

Unlike many of our web competitors, we don’t offer a place for users to publish their content so we don’t face many of the copyright violations our web competitors face. I don’t have insight into what specific content is being created and shared since we don’t store that since it is done at the desktop but I do know that our independent content partners have been happy and we have been driving them a significant amount of traffic.

Who do you believe is the ringtone/ wallpaper company to watch over the next 2 years (besides tonethis of course!)
Singh: This is a tough call - amongst the premium content portals, some have done a very good job protecting their revenues like FunMobility. It’s a constant marketing game, using subscriptions and introducing new seasonal or branded content. With most of the online mobile content social networks, I think it’s a toss-up - from statistics I have, most of them have fewer users then ourselves.

I definitely would track some of the technology companies pushing the ringtone envelop like Emotive with their push-ringers, not sure who else. Really, I think the company to watch is Apple and how they sell and deliver ringtones, wallpapers and videos through iTunes - I’m really interested to see how it does because in some ways they are providing more validation for ToneThis.

Richard T.