Results are Music to Operators' Ears
Results of the first European survey to gauge consumer
demand for personalised ringback tones reveal they
may be the next must-have application for phone users.
A survey published
-- 37% of all consumers aged 15-49 would subscribe
to the new service.
-- Interest was highest among the 15-24 age bracket
with 68% of those willing to pay, prepared to part
with between 50 cent and 2 Euro to personalise their
handsets.
-- Content type was also examined in detail. MTV and
movie themes‚ was the most popular overall choice
(60%) however pop music (88%) and rock (83%) were
most in favour with the youth market. The service
was slightly more popular with males (53%) than with
females (47%).
"The data suggests ringback tones will be as
popular in Europe as they have been in Asia",
said John Whelan, Head of Research at Alatto Technologies.
"Certainly interest in our solution, vConnect
has been very strong. We expect to see network operators
in Europe continue to launch throughout the Summer
and anticipate the service will be available in Ireland
before Christmas".
SK Telecom who launched ringback tones in Korea in
April 2002 has 8 Million subscribers generating more
than $ 9 Million in new revenue each month.
In Europe, T Mobil was the first operator to launch
in December 2003. It claims to have more than half
a million customers using their Caller Tunes service
in Germany, the UK and the Czech Republic.
