The first commercial mobile phone with ring tones was the Japanese NTT DoCoMo Digital Mova N103 Hyper by NEC, released in May 1996. It had a few preset songs in MIDI format.

In September 1996, IDO, the current au, sold Digital Minimo D319 by Denso. 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. Kētai Chakumero Do-Re-Mi Book (ケータイ着メロ ドレミBOOK, "Mobile Ringtones Do-Re-Mi Book"), a book published on July 1998 introducing the "notes" 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 Radiolinja (today Elisa) 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 SMS to a mobile handset. On November 1998, Digitalphone Groupe, the current SoftBank Mobile, started the similar service in Japan.

The service concept spread quickly in Europe and Asia and developed into a multi-billion dollar industry. A ring tone service was one of the very first successful m-commerce services, with social media features like composing, sharing, and rating ring tones. The Harmonium also quickly created a market for high-quality professional ring tones and commercial ring tone libraries.

Truetones (or real tones), which are often excerpts from pop songs, have become popular as ring tones. The first truetone service was started by au on December 2002. My Gift to You by Chemistry was the first song to be distributed as a truetone.

The increase of video games has contributed to the popularity of ringtones. On August 5, 2006, the BBC described "free ring tones" as a dangerous search term, because of the risk of malware and other malicious websites.

By 2005, ring tones generated more than $2 billion in annual worldwide revenues. Sales and marketing of ring tones is a prime example of vertical telecommunication convergence.

Types of ringtones

There are 3 popular kinds of ringtones available at the moment:

Monophonic

A monophonic ring tone is simply a series of musical notes, one note at a time.

Polyphonic

A polyphonic ring tone can consist of several notes at a time. The first polyphonic ring tones used sequenced recording methods such as MIDI. Such recordings specify what synthetic instrument should play a note at a given time, and the actual instrument sound is dependent upon the playback device.

Truetone

A truetone (also known as "realtone", "mastertone", "superphonic ringtone" or "audio recording") is simply an audio recording, typically in a common format such as MP3, AAC, or WMA, and represents the latest evolution of the ring tone. Truetones, which are often excerpts from songs, have become popular as ring tones.

Ringtone features

Older telephones simply used a pair of bells for the ringer. Modern ring tones have become extremely diverse, leading to phone personalization and customization.

Newer mobile phones allow users to associate different ring tones with individual family members and friends. Taking advantage of these features, a new ring tone maker trend has emerged.

For example, websites like Mobilephoria, Phone Sherpa, and Dopetone let users make ringtones from the music they already own (MP3, CD etc.) and upload directly to their mobile phone with no limit on the number of songs uploaded.

In addition to the cost benefits, a key feature is the music editor that lets the user easily pick the part of the song they wish to set as a ring tone. Such services automatically detect the phone settings to ensure the best file type and format. There are, however, providers who have already edited and trimmed the song for you.

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). However, these use native 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 ringtone.

Commercial ringtones take advantage of this functionality, which has led to the success of the mobile music industry. Southern rapper Chamillionaire was the first to have a ring tone go 3x platinum for the hit single "Ridin." He now has his own category on certain phones and RingtoneFeeder is offering ringtones for the iPhone using a subscription model.

The latest innovation is the sing tone, a type of karaoke ring tone where a user’s voice recording is adjusted to be both in time and in tune then mixed with a backing track to make a user-created ring tone.

An alternative to a ringtone for mobile phones is a vibrating alert. It may be useful:

  • In noisy environments
  • In places where ring tone noise would be disturbing
  • For those with a hearing loss

Mosquito ringtone

Teen Buzz (also known as Mosquitotone or Zumbitone) is a popular ringtone that was hijacked from a technology that was originally used to repel loitering teenagers from shops in the United Kingdom. Inventor Howard Stapleton developed the "Mosquito device" for Compound Security Systems.

This device emits a modulated 17 kHz sound that proves to be a great annoyance to teenagers or anyone younger, but leaves most over thirty years of age unaffected. This is due to presbycusis, a normal loss of acute hearing that occurs with advancing age.

TeenBuzz mosquito ringtone was developed using the same technology, but as a constant 17 kHz high frequency ringtone. It is primarily used in the classroom, allowing students to be alerted of incoming text messages on their mobile phones without the knowledge of their teachers.

The company that developed the device said that they were impressed and admits to the idea being humorous, although they considered it may be an infringement on their intellectual property rights. They developed their own ringtone which they sold as the authentic mosquito tone.