'Push Ringtones' Establish A Whole New Level Of Pointlessness
from the no-there's-a-great-idea dept
As ringtone sales begin to fall, the mobile content industry searches for something else to sell people. They've tried ringback tones -- which replace the regular ringing noise callers hear with a song -- and even endtones -- snippets of songs to let you know your call has ended. Unsurprisingly, these haven't really sold too well. But brace yourself for an even more useless idea: "push ringers". Push ringers are ringtones that get pushed to your phone by whoever's calling you, meaning they'd get to control the sound your phone makes when you receive a call. While such an idea holds a fascinating potential for abuse, it's hard to imagine very many people willing to cede control of their ringtone to whoever happens to call them. Never mind the technological barriers to the idea, the sociological ones make it bound to fail.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Not to mention...
Say, if the phone's in your jacket pocket on a hook, or if you're in a noisy environment with a bunch of people and you can't quite tell where that "Bridge and Flocking" ringtone is coming from...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Perfect Push Tone
Absolutely perfect...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Haha
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Screw that!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Screw that!!
The only way to stop is to drop the carrier instantly if they offer the push service.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If they pay me?
If I get $1, every time my phone rings and a jingle for cola or a television show plays - perfect. I'd assume my provider would screen them for vulgarity, etc. I had 120 incoming calls/rings last month - I'd relish the check for $120 to pay my cell phone bill with.
Maybe they'd even let me be picky and choose who to promote for 50c a ring?
They could Google-ize it and set it up as an auction - the users set their lowest acceptable ring price and the rings flow...
I can't see much money in it for phone companies without hundreds of advertisers, but I still think their first idea that consumers would pay for this feature is idiotic.
Advertisers, on the other hand, do rather well paying for the web - why not our phone service too?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I actually like the idea
I know they could just email me a ringtone or something, but I am lazy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Push Ringers?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Audio Spam
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Actually...
I see a use for this. Maybe. After they implement this, perhaps some creative mind can hack the system and force all of the phones to ring out something that sounds like a GOD DAMNED BELL.
God I miss those old dinosaurs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Actually...
God I miss those old dinosaurs.
I LOVE YOU!! Are you single?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I can actually see potential for this.
Of course, as so many people point out (and Fat Tony does it wonderfully), the potential for abuse is far greater.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Absolutely Fucknuts
I can also picture more advertisers with the Intel-alike jingle ringing then just hanging up all the time - basically free advertising since there would never be an actual call
On the other hand this will take bandwidth to transmit meaning you'll likely start getting charged for calls you make whether they go through or not and calls will take longer to connect
So an utterly annoying service with no real redeeming factors - sounds perfect for the telecoms industry, I bet verizon are chomping at the bit
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
advertisers?
Yeah, I think I will keep my phone permanently on vibrate if this service actually sees any kind of broad acceptance.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I guess, it's a fine idea - IF you have the option of overriding and using only the ringtones you prefer. Frankly, most ringtones other than the 'standard' ones, just annoy me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How can they make any ringtone be heard?
Firstly the phone should support that format. Then, shouldn't the phone hold the ringtone itself? On the phone memory no less, to play it? Even if they transmit it...what's the use if the phones on silent or vibrate? My phone is on vibrate a lot of times. Thats just a waste. Its quite a dumb idea really...except I can prank the hell out of a lot of ppl. That would be fun.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Rediculous
Push me a ring tone? Uhmm... no. I liked the idea of being paid to accept them, though ;-)
Here's a money-making idea for the telecoms. Sell us the home, mobile and work phone #s of anyone who sends spam so we can all call them and bother them the same way they bother us. I'd pay .50 a call to tell them to F*** OFF! :-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's Called "Permission"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
wow
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Push Ringers are PUSH TONES!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
push ringtones...
and the chances of abuse can be reduced greatly with the way I would implement it..
any programmers want to work with me on this?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]