Cell Phone Ring Tones, What Are They Good For?
December 24th, 2007Most people–no matter the gender, the age group or the social strata to which they belong to– possess at least one cell phone. And if you are like most people then you probably have ring tones for your cell phone. And if you are so tuned in to the latest in cell phone technology then you most probably have different ring tones for specific groups in your cell phone address book.
Phones have made noises to get our attention for a long, long time. From the phones that were screwed into your wall or the phones that occupied half of the available countertop space in your kitchen, they all made noises. Now, with the portability of cell phones, it is important for some, and just plain fun for others to be able to customize the ring tone coming from their phone to tell them who exactly is calling them.
The personalization of cell phone ring tones actually plays a pretty important role besides just having fun or knowing who is calling you right now. Picture yourself eating at a table of 6 colleagues and you hear a cell phone ringing. Without being able to customize your ring tone, you would all probably be reaching for your jacket pocket or your purse to retrieve your cell phone as they would all sound exactly alike.
Not many people know the origin of cell phone ring tones. It came about around 1998 with the help of a Finnish mobile operator Radiolinjia and an inventor named Vesa-Matti Paananen (say that 3 times fast!). Thanks to combination, people today can get custom ring tones for their personal cell phones for a small charge, and even sometimes free. While popular in the USA it is as popular if not more popular in Europe and Asia.
The ring tone craze has created an industry that continues to generate billions of dollars in revenues. Some mobile phone companies release new ring tones for their subscribers for a small charge. However, you can easily download ring tones from the Internet but be careful what you look for as you might be getting malwares.
Ring tones have adapted to the advance in cell phone technology. If you have a relatively new cell phone you will be able to play anything from customized ring tones to composer ring tones where you can hear a baby crying or animal sounds. This is a far cry from ring tones of the past that were monophonic (the simplest sounds) in nature.
No matter if you use your cell phone for work or play you can make them more useful by assigning ring tones to everyone in your address book. This will make it easier for you to identify who is calling even before you look at the cell phones screen. Just keep in mind most phones still have the vibrating alert. Using this feature could save you some embarrassment in certain situations.
