Ringtones are probably of great significance to the economy as a major source of income to companies selling these tones. Also music companies get royalties for selling tunes to ringtone companies.

Try calculating the number of mobile phones. In a typical year Nokia seems to sell around 160 million phones. world wide it is estimated at around 250 million. Just multiply this figure by $2 or even $3 and you get a few hundred million dollars per year just on a ringtone market.