Sprint Releases Survey Results, 48% Want Ringtones

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=5741' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.a...?ContentId=5741</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Sprint has released the results of the Sprint U.S. Consumer Wireless Usage Study, a US wide survey of wireless phone users. The findings show that more than half of American wireless phone subscribers (56 percent) rely on their mobile phones for features such as cameras, clocks, calendars, messaging, music and as a substitute flashlight for seeing in dark places. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (63 percent) said they would use their wireless phone to retrieve maps or directions. Cameras remain popular with wireless users, with 55 percent expressing interest in the product. Walkie-talkies and ring tones are also popular with consumers, each cited by 48 percent and Internet access garnered 43 percent interest."</i><br /><br />Sprint has relased their study results finding that, among other things, 48% of users are interested ring tones, which is more than those who cared about Internet Access, gaming, or taking pictures of pets &amp; celebrations. Again, I am annoyed at the (apparently still strong) percentage of the US population that values an utterly stupid feature so highly. When I select a ringtone, I select something that is clear to hear, and fairly <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/media/users/10908/rtd.mp3">generic</a> as I figure, the less people know about my taste in music, the better (Anyone know the song my ringer comes from?). What are you opinions on this? Should ring tones be as high a priority for mobile users in general? Why are they - is it simply a lack of education or concern over other possible uses? :roll:

[MitchellO]

No offense, but I hate your ringtone :lol:

Mine at the moment is Austin Powers :D Comes through really loud on my SP5, as well as my previous XDA Mini and KJAM.

[KTamas]

Ringtones are okay, but when ppl find it cool to have a new ringtone every week, now that's something that is wrong IMO. Mine is Futurama's intro song (yes, I'm a fan...), but i have that since a year or so and I don't really intend to change it. Before that i had a different one for another two years maybe.

[MitchellO]

Yeah, I have been using my Austin Powers one for over a year too.

[rhelwig]

I don't have a "ringtone", I have a sound.

Ringtone to me means a crappy midi-like sound effect that morons pay for. Witness the commercial with the dorky loser singing along to a midi version of the Dukes of Hazzard theme song.

I downloaded my phones sound effects free from the Internet. When someone calls me, I hear the Andromeda Ascendant saying "all hands, incoming message". But then I am a geek. 8)

[pocketpcadmirer]

I'm a college going guy, so, like everyone, I constantly change ringtone. I never have a ringtone for more than 3 days(I mean it). I make them myself, so, I dont spend anything on it(I use Goldwave).

Currently, I've Linkin Park's Fort minor's PETRIFIED. I'm a huge Linkin Park fan :D :D

Sunny

[IpaqMan2]

In my opinion there are 3 things that keep the wireless market in the US from realy maturing like you would see users of other areas.

First I believe is the lack of education. Most mobile phone users have not a clue that smartphones / PDA phones can do what they really can do. Instead Mobile Phone users in the US would rather chose a basic mobile phone with little functions like ring tones, messaging, and a camera, and style (like the razor) over performance.

Second here in the US Wireless carries will gorge the market as long as they can, keeping wireless contracts and pricing fairly high to the average user which for many people keeps them away from using many features that wireless can bring.

And last here in the US, the margarity of the people are "dumb" down. In other words if it don`t have a traditional dail pad it just won't sale well. Right now ring tones, pictures, messaging, and now mp3 listening seems to be pushing the envelope for most mobile phone users in America... But when you think about it.. is it really the users fault here in the US? The US is a major Cash cow when it comes to companies making money here and when you think about wireless carriers in the US has been very content in charging $2.99 for ring tones, let alone more for sending pictures, using Messaging, and now listening to or downloading music... so it's no wonder they keep users here in the US as idiots using "dumbdown" cell phones when they are profiting so well. I mean this was one of the main reasons why some years ago carriers didn't want Microsoft's smartphones because the end users could make their own ring tones from wav files instead of buying them from the carrier.. but heck who knows.. the above is just my thoughts.

[Phillip Dyson]

It sounds like your answer about ringtones is here in this thread of posts. Personally I'm with you. I pick something dear and simple. Then I'm done with it.

[Darius Wey]

I'm not really into fancy ringtones. I usually pick the standard ringer, though I have been using the 24 CTU ringtone a lot lately.

[DaleReeck]

I also prefer the least annoying ringtone :)

But I have to say, I tihnk being who we are - PDA dorks and geeks - we overestimate the importance of internet and email. For most of the people out there working non-tech jobs, they don't need or care about internet access from their phone. Tell me, what does a factory worker or a waitress need internet or email from their phone? They don't. And even for us technically inclined people, tell me, really, do any of us NEED internet access or email? For our jobs? Or do we have it just because its cool and, maybe at best, mildly useful in some situations?

I use a 6700 over EVDO on Sprint with Business Connect and push email. It's very cool. But do I NEED it? No, I'm not important enough to need access like that constantly. But it's cool and occassionally mildly useful.

I think most people are of that mindset. Internet and email on the phone are just gadgets with little impact in their real lives. They don't need it. So I'm not surprised most think more mundane stuff like ringtones or cameras are more important.

Just because we tech geeks congregate around places like this doesn't mean the real world is like our community because it really isn't.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

I have Natalie Imbruglia's "Wishing I Was There," in MIDI form, as my ringtone. I've had the same ringtone for way more than 3 years. It's "mine" so to speak. Even when I find new ones, I end up going back.

Funny the kind of things we, as people, identify with.

[ucfgrad93]

My phone is on vibrate about 99% of the time, so ringtones don't interest me at all.

[mmidgley]

I don't have a smartphone (its a Motorola V551 along with an iPAQ 5555 WM2003), but my phone is capable of playing mp3 ringtones, so I do have several on it--but I use the same one most of the time. Actually, my phone is either in vibrate mode or ring-through-bluetooth-headset 99% of the time so my ringtone is rarely heard. I intentionally picked a low cost phone that has bluetooth so I just transfer in whatever ringtone I want locally, avoiding the $3 purchase as well as avoiding using the carrier's network to download it. Sites like WalMart.com that have 30 second demo tracks is perfect for me, that way I don't even have to rip my favorite cd and edit the song down (the phone only as 6MB memory).

I guess my point is that if you want to use cool ringtones, you really don't have to pay ridiculous amounts to the carrier--there are alternatives (but I guess the average cellphone user won't bother, they'll just avoid it or open their wallet up wide).

m.

[IpaqMan2]

I think most people are of that mindset. Internet and email on the phone are just gadgets with little impact in their real lives. They don't need it. So I'm not surprised most think more mundane stuff like ringtones or cameras are more important.


I also have a Sprint 6700. The reason for me having it has less to do with the "cool" factor and more to do because I find it "mildly" useful and for me that's enough My job doesn't require me to have or use my Phone. I could be a waitress, or a janitor, and I'd still find what my phone does to be "mildly" useful. Being cool would be to have an iPod, or the Razor phone, or whatever the flavor of the week is. Being cool is fashion, to show off.

I really wonder if in other countries, like Asia or Europe if using a smartphone has less with being cool and more to do with it just being useful.

[pocketpcadmirer]

Here's the one which I use now..it sounds very clear on any PDA speakers

URL (http://rapidshare.de/files/11516051/Somebody_to_Love.mp3.html)

Sunny

[hamishmacdonald]

Scene from Europe:

===
INT SCOTRAIL TRAIN, DAY:

(Cue sound: Mobile phone beeping out "Scotland the Brave".)

(MAN in white shell suit with Burberry cap on answers the mobile after three full choruses.)

MAN: Oi, mate!

(Cue sound, three seats down: Standard Nokia factory-installed ringtone.)

SECOND MAN: Heya. Wot? Soz, mate, Ah can't hear yeh, 'coz some w*nker on the train wi' me is screamin' down 'is moby. (To FIRST MAN) Oi, could you keep it down?

(FIRST MAN takes offense, throws his can of Tennant's Lager at SECOND MAN, misses. Can hits SECOND MAN'S GIRLFRIEND, who drops her pink mobile.)

(Fight ensues.)
===

Much as I like living in Europe, there are just as many people buying trash accessories and sounds for their mobile phones here. Only we pay the same price in pounds.

We do, however, also have an extra fetish for text messaging, which I know from my visits overseas has not caught on at all in Canada. So if anything, we're willing to pay for more stuff.

[bjornkeizers]

I absolutely *hate* ring tones. Spend three hours a day in public transportation, and you too will want to strangle nearby phone users.

Now that pretty much all new cellphones support MP3 playing and MP3 ringtones, it's gone from bad to worse. Sure, those silly beeps were annoying, but not as annoying as a group of high school kids doing the Ringtone Top 40 at 7:30AM at a volume usually loud enough to wake the dead. 8O

[Jonathon Watkins]

Mine goes 'Ring, Ring', i.e an 'old fashioned' ringing noise. Why would I want anything else? When I get phone that I can download ringtones to, I will rechord my wife saying 'Ring, Ring,'. Works for me. :wink:

[Gerard]

I have 3 short MP3 tracks on my phone: 2 are pleasant classical guitar intros from some DJ Krush album, the other is my wife's band playing an African folk tune. The latter stays on most of the time, unless I'm somewhere where either vibrate is preferred or where a less lively audible ring is wanted.

As incredulous as many popular behaviors make me feel, the purchasing of ringtones for $1 or more is absolutely flabberghasting. How is it that people feel so rich that they blithely throw away money on things they can almost always do for themselves, in minutes or less? Truly bizarre. I think 50% of people are sheep, minimum.

[Constant Caffeine]

I’m with percentage that finds ringtones annoying. Personally, I have my phone on silent/vibrate mode most of the day. It is at night when I take it off my belt that I turn the volume up.

[buckyg]

At first, I thought ringtones were cool. Then suddenly, seems like everyone around me at work started leaving their cell phones at their desk during meetings and people kept calling them constantly to say, "Where are you at?" Several songs I used to enjoy, I can't *stand* anymore...

Then I got a new phone last year. It's supposed to be a business-oriented phone. What's this? It will not actually *ring*! Nope, it will play chimes, dance music, weird MIDI-sounding stuff. But no actual ring is available in the included ringtones. After about the 5th call I missed while out in loud areas in public, because I kept wondering what that stupid sound was, I had to *pay* to get a ringtone that was an actual ring. Yeah, I'm on Verizon, no freebies there. My phone also "rings" or vibrates but not both, so I tend to forget to put it on vibrate unless I'm in a meeting.

[ctmagnus]

After about the 5th call I missed while out in loud areas in public, because I kept wondering what that stupid sound was

That happened to me once, only with an alarm on my Pocket PC. I had recently changed it to an actual beeping sound (!) and was working on a malfunctioning printer at the time. I thought the sound was an error code the printer was giving off. :oops:


Anyways, I'll bet a donut (a good, Canadian donut) that my ringtone is one of the most unique in the entire universe. Nobody will ever mistake it as their own phone ringing.

[Mark Kenepp]

When I get phone that I can download ringtones to, I will rechord my wife saying 'Ring, Ring,'. Works for me. :wink:

If you're going to go to the trouble of recording your wife, why don't you get her to say something realistic like "Would you answer your phone already!" or "Don't think I don't know what you are doing!" :wink:

Or maybe it should be your Mother's voice :lol:

I should probably get my Mom's voice saying something like "When will you come visit? I never get to see you." in a tone specifically chosen to make me feel guilty :worried: .

[unxmully]

I find it slightly amusing that while I'm reading this thread about how annoying some ringtones are, every time the word ringtone appears, it's a link to a site that sells downloadable ringtones.

[Paundskumm]

Well, I'm no tech-geek but I like to be on the bleeding edge. I've gone through an XDA II, XDA IIs and now and XDA Atom in the past two years. GPRS, Wi-fi, you name it, I use it.

But I wonder why everyone is so against ringtones in this thread. I personally stuff a bunch of midi's ranging from the James Bond theme song (well mostly movie themes like Godfather, Hawaii Five-O, etc.) I think that population density over here in Asia is much greater than in the US or even Europe and the subways are even more crowded. However, I haven't heard so much as a peep of bitching about ringing on public transport (save for people complaining about ringing in movie theatres which I happen to agree with).

Is it because you guys are just a little too spoiled? Live and let live guys. There are a lot worse things (and noise) than a few ringtones (unless the idiot lets it run for a minute). Or maybe I've just gotten used to ambient noise levels higher than a construction site so I'm immune now.

On a weird off topic, the XDA Atom was absolutely horrible until the latest ROM upgrade which makes it now kind of useable but still buggy. However, I'm not sure why but I on Activesync 4.1 to WM5, when I explore the files on my computer (and laptop), I can't find the windows file where I'm supposed to stuff my ringtones and other things. However, using the file explorer built into the PDA, I can find the window file and have to copy and paste in my PDA itself (can't do it from the computer). Anyone know why this is other than WM5 is buggy as heck?

[MitchellO]

The Atom just simply looks absolutely gorgeous :D

[Paundskumm]

The Atom just simply looks absolutely gorgeous :D

Yeah, looks great. Specs on paper are awesome. Wifi, Bluetooth, GPRS, Edge support, even FM radio. And tiny and light to boot.

Only problem is OS Stinks beyond belief. Slower than anything. Keeps cutting out on the mobile function (ie, loses connection). Takes about five seconds for the phone to ring. 2MP camera basically unuseable.

The new ROM which came out last week makes the Atom "useable" but I think they still need to improve on it. All in all, awesome hardware but I think they rushed the software as it doesn't work very well. I've been having a heck of a time trying to get this thing to work properly and unlike a lot of other people, I kind of know what I'm doing. So lets hope they fix the OS more on the next ROM upgrade

[AZMark]

Ringtones are silly, but smileys and avatars are cool?

All depends on how you want to dork out. Some like "silly desktop wallpaper" and "stupid fish screen savers". Folks just like to personalize their technology.

[inteller]

i seriously doubt this survey actually used any real data or "statistics" It probably had loaded questions like:

"if you were to download something from the sprint content store, what would it be"

48% people clicked the first option "ringtones"

now suddenly everyone wants ringtones.


Sprint just wants more self justification to peddle its trinket ********.

[MitchellO]

The Atom just simply looks absolutely gorgeous :D

Yeah, looks great. Specs on paper are awesome. Wifi, Bluetooth, GPRS, Edge support, even FM radio. And tiny and light to boot.

My SP5 has the first 4 and last two :D (only missing the radio)

Only problem is OS Stinks beyond belief. Slower than anything. Keeps cutting out on the mobile function (ie, loses connection). Takes about five seconds for the phone to ring. 2MP camera basically unuseable.

The new ROM which came out last week makes the Atom "useable" but I think they still need to improve on it. All in all, awesome hardware but I think they rushed the software as it doesn't work very well. I've been having a heck of a time trying to get this thing to work properly and unlike a lot of other people, I kind of know what I'm doing. So lets hope they fix the OS more on the next ROM upgrade

Yeah a good ROM update will fix those issues. I personally ditched the KJam in part because it was rather slow, ringtones we all broken and came late (like you said), and it was just a pain to have to worry about the screen. I carried it caseless in my pocket (it became huge in a case) and it was just too uncomforable, and I was constantly checking to make sure it was ok. With the SP5 it just slips in and it fine. Very compact, and the screen is much stronger than the touchscreen on the KJAM.

On the Atom you could put it in a case and it would be ok sizewise.

[alanjrobertson]

Yep, I find all these various ringtones incredibly annoying. Have any of you folks outside the UK heard of 'Crazy Frog' - embarrassingly for the UK it reached No 1 in our singles chart (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4576119.stm) last year - very very sad! Also quite a rip-off - lots of people who downloaded it didn't realise they were signing up to a weekly download of new ringtones (see video report at that previous link). Luckily the company involved has now been fined (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4546374.stm).

Personally I've got the 'old phone' SonyEricsson ring tone - the nice thing is that it's actually really easy to pick out from other ringtones as almost no-one else seems to use it! Must say that I tend to switch my phone onto silent whenever I'm out the house though.

Cheers

Alan