全部博文（2005）
分类： 嵌入式
2010-11-26 15:09:41
A ringback tone is an that is heard on the telephone line by the calling party after dialing
and prior to the call being answered at the receiving end. It is
normally a repeated tone, designed to assure the calling party that the
called party's line is ringing, although the ring-back tone may be out
of sync with the ringing signal.
The ringback tone is in most cases generated in the switching system (for example or ) and not in the handset as it would be possible with VoIP systems. In recent years, personalized ringback tones, featuring audio of the called party's choice (e.g. a pop song), have become available from various mobile telephone providers at an extra charge. Some providers offer advertisement ringback tones in exchange for cheaper or even free phone calls to the consumer. The personalized ringback tone may also use the post dial delay period. Hence when music is heard for example by AT&T Wireless it does not mean the phone is ringing on the other end.
Early versions of personalized ringback tone systems have been invented by a couple of inventors, Mark Gregorek et.al (Patent Nr.5,321,740) and Neil Sleevi (Patent Nr.4,811,382).[] The first functional ringback tone replacement system has been invented by Karl Seelig et. al (Patents Nr.7,006,608 and Nr. 7,076,445). In 2001 Seelig's prototype was described in Orange County Register and the Economist Magazine kick starting the world wide development of ringback tone replacement. The market size of ringback tone replacement was 2.5 Billion Dollars in 2006 according to ovuum consulting.
Following a 1975 FCC ruling which permitted third-party devices to be connected to phone lines, manufacturers began to produce accessory telephone ringers which rang with electronic tones or melodies rather than mechanically. People also made their own ringers which used the chip from a musical greeting card to play a melody on the arrival of a call. One such ringer, described in a 1989 book, even features a toy dog which barks and wags its tail when a call arrives. Eventually, electronic telephone ringers became the norm. Some of these ringers produced a single tone, but others produced a sequence of two or three tones or a musical melody.
The first commercial mobile phone with customizable ring tones was the Digital Mova N103 Hyper by , released in May 1996. It had a few preset songs in format. In September 1996, , the current , sold Digital Minimo D319 by . It was the first mobile phone where a user could input an original melody, rather than the preset songs. These phones proved to be popular in Japan: a book published in 1998 providing details about how to customize phones to play of popular songs sold more than 3.5 million copies.
The first downloadable mobile ring tone service was created and delivered in Finland in autumn 1998 when (a Finnish mobile operator now known as ) started their service called Harmonium, invented by Vesa-Matti Pananen., the Harmonium contained both tools for individuals to create monophonic ring tones and a mechanism to deliver them over-the-air (OTA) via to a mobile handset. On November 1998, Digitalphone Groupe () started a similar service in Japan.
A ring tone maker allows a user to take a song from their personal music collection, select whatever section they like and send the file to their mobile phone. Files can be sent to the mobile phone by direct connection (e.g., USB cable), Bluetooth, text messaging, or e-mail.
The earliest ringtone maker was Harmonium, developed by , a Finnish computer programmer, and released in 1997 for use with smart messaging.
Some providers allow users to create their own music tones, either with a "melody composer" or a sample/loop arranger (such as the MusicDJ in many Sony Ericsson phones). These often use encoding formats only available to one particular phone model or brand. Other formats, such as MIDI or MP3, are often supported; they must be downloaded to the phone before they can be used as a normal ring tone.
When someone buys a ringtone, an aggregator (company that sells ringtones) either creates their own tune or mixes together a pre-existing one. After the ringtone is created, it is put into a unique file format and sent to the person’s phone via SMS. If the company uses a pre-existing song, they must pay royalties to the person who owns the song. The owner of the song doesn’t get all of the money; a significant portion is given to the cell phone provider.
In 2005 "SmashTheTones" (now ""), became the first third-party solution to allow ring tone creation online without requiring downloadable software or a . Later, Apple’s iPhone allowed users to create a ringtone from any song purchased for the phone’s iTunes library but with some difficulties, including a 40-second limit, and the fact the file has to be an AAC format and whose name ended with the extension .m4r.
There are a variety of websites that let users make ring tones from or other sound files; they upload directly to their mobile phone with no limit on the number of songs uploaded. They featu
The fact that consumers are willing to pay up to $3 for ringtones have made "" a particularly profitable part of the . Estimates vary: the Manhattan-based marketing and consulting firm estimated ringtones generated $4 billion in worldwide sales in 2004. According to magazine, ring tones generated more than $2 billion in worldwide sales during 2005. The rise of sound files also contributed to the popularization of ringtones. In 2003 for example, the Japanese ringtone market, which alone was worth US $900 million, experienced US $66.4 million worth of sound file ringtone sales. Also in 2003, the global ringtone industry was worth somewhere between US $2.5 and US $3.5 billion. In 2009, the research firm SNL Kagan estimated that sales of ringtones in the United States peaked at $714 million in 2007. SNL Kagan estimated U.S. sales in 2008 declined to $541 million, due in part to consumers having learned how to create their own ringtones.
The ringtone business has prompted controversy about the industry's business practices.
In April 2005, the law firm of Callahan, McCune and Willis filed a class action lawsuit against on behalf of a father and his ten-year-old daughter. The lawsuit alleges that Jamster! scammed cellular telephone customers through the use of fraudulent and deceptive advertisements. The plaintiffs argue that the ads in question offered one free ring tone to cell phone customers who responded to the ad via text message, but failed to inform users that they would be subscribed to a monthly service. The lawsuit was combined with four others and settled in November 2009.
In June, 2007, the ruling was handed down in Satterfield v. Simon & Schuster, No. C 06-2893 CW, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46325 (N.D. Cal. June 26, 2007), a case involving the transmission of an SMS text message promoting a popular author's "mobile club" to a cellular phone used by a seven-year-old child. The defendants, the publishing company that contracted for the transmission of the promotional messages and the service provider that actually sent the messages, argued that the subscriber, the child's mother, had consented to the transmission of promotional messages when, in order to receive a free ringtone, she checked the box in an online form labeled "Yes! I would like to receive promotions from Nextones affiliates and brands…."
Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the SMS text messages are not covered by the , first, because the manner in which the SMS messages were sent does not fit the statutory definition of an "automatic telephone dialing system," and second, because the plaintiff had agreed to receive promotional messages under a broadly worded consent provision, executed in connection with the download of a free ringtone. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and reinstated the potentially 90 million dollar lawsuit against publishing giant Simon & Schuster
On July 20, 2005, the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a non-profit California consumer advocacy organization, filed a complaint with the (CPUC) against for the unauthorized billing of non-communications related charges, such as ring tones. UCAN claimed that billed its customers for and other similar ring tone services without providing customers with the notice, opt-in, and proof of authorization requirements necessary for such charges. UCAN further charged Cingular with violating numerous CPUC requirements by consistently telling customers with questions about non-communications service charges on their wireless phone bill that Cingular has no responsibility and cannot assist customers with their inquiries. Federal court rules Telephone Consumer Protection Act does not apply to commercial SMS text messages sent to cellular phones[].
regarding ringtones has been one of the most controversial aspects of cell phone culture. Although often played for aesthetic value to alert a recipient of an incoming call, some individuals around the recipient could consider the ringing noise to be a disturbance. Employers have been known to ban ringtones at work; one Australian company even goes so far as to fine its employees each time their ringtone sounds during a meeting. In another survey of cell-phone owning professionals, 18 percent felt that the worst cell phone etiquette offense was to cycle through a phone's ringtone list, playing them one by one, while riding public transportation.
