Forget Smarter Ringtones; Why Not Just Make Them Ruder?
By Mike Masnick, Sat Jun 25 00:15:00 EEST 2005

There are different strategies to make ringtones more popular to a wider demographic, but is focusing in on just how annoying they are to plenty of people a reasonable strategy?


Yesterday, the story was about how Avaya was trying to make ringtones "smarter." While the idea came off as a bit half-baked at this point, the concept is to try to interest people who aren't normally ringtone customers. That is, finding an application for ringtones targeted at people who don't really want to express themselves with the latest hit single.

A subset of non-ringtone using phone users goes much further -- to the point where they actively dislike ringtones and find them annoying. This is often a combination of being annoyed at phones ringing loudly in public already and a general dislike for the types of ringtones people are buying these days. In fact, one of the most successful ringtones of all times, is also considered one of the most annoying.

With that in mind, it seems like some ringtone sellers are embracing the annoyance factor. Knowing that some people actually enjoy the reaction from others when their phones make annoying sounds, there's apparently a growing market for making increasingly rude and annoying ringtones to show off just how obnoxious you can be. This isn't really that surprising. There's always a market for rude and annoying things, and it's likely that plenty of kids (and some adults) will find these tremendously amusing.

However, it does little to actually expand the ringtone market -- and could have the opposite effect: turning off the very types of people that ringtone makers are hoping will be the next to jump on the ringtone customization bandwagon. If ringtones are really going to become more than a passing fad, they need to appeal to a much broader audience by becoming more useful, rather than less useful.