What is the market size of the ringtone industry?

Answer 1

From Caslon Analytics (http://www.caslon.com.au/ringtonesnote.htm#markets ):

Estimates of the current size of the ringtones market and its future growth are contentious.

2004 Juniper Research and the ARC Group published studies on the global ringtone market, claiming that it was worth between US$1 billion and US$3.3 billion in 2003, supposedly up to 10% of the estimated US$32.2 billion global music market. Juniper claimed that the ringtone market peaked in 2003 at US$1 billion, with a forecast that it will halve by 2008. ARC, in contrast, claimed that the market was $3.3 billion and would double by 2008. Most of the current market was in Europe and Asia (principally Japan and South Korea), with slower uptake in the US.

In mid-2005 Broadcast Music Inc. projected that the US ringtones market would surpass US$500 million in retail sales in 2005, following sales of US$245 million in 2004 and US$68 million in 2003. IDC Research had estimated that ringtone sales in the US were almost US$17 million in 2002, US$18 million in 2003 and US$375 million in 2004.

The 2005 Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) claimed that 30% of respondents had purchased a ringtone in the preceding 12 months, with most respondents purchasing an average of three ringtones and two games. The 13-16 year cohort purchased significantly higher numbers of ringtones, logos, screensavers and accessories. Females bought more ringtones; males among AIMIA's respondents bought more games.

UK specialist Xingtone.co.uk claimed regional differences, with residents of large UK cities or towns (72%) being more likely to embrace ringtones than their rural counterparts, although there was supposedly greater take up in Scotland (26%) and Wales (23%) - ahead of London (18%) and the Midlands (12%).

US-based PWS boasts that its customers downloaded 59 million tones during 2002, with a UK competitor claiming that it was providing 10 thousand downloads per day. Arc forecasts that ringtone downloads will outpace the market for listening to songs on mobile phones and other wireless devices. Depending on whose crystal ball you've polished, 551 million users worldwide might buy ringtones in 2006, with only 112 million users listening to MP3 files on their mobile phones.

Bill Dunphy