David Pogue says the ringtone market, especially its success, is insane.
"What am I missing here? How is a 30-second, time-limited excerpt worth three times as much as the full work forever? Does this not enter the heads of the people who are paying $5 billion a year?"
He is not alone.
I said: "People pay $2.50 for a ringtone? Are people nuts? What is it with people and their phones?"
And TidBITS said: "Clearly the popularity of ringtones indicates that civilization is nearing its end."
5 comments:
Its $2.50 to announce to the world "look! listen! See how special/unique/intelectual/fun/ect I am."
$2.50 for a wee bit of ego boost.
Sad. Just sad.
It's the law of the market, Leviathud. "Luxury" items paid a high price to show off, just like a muscle car or a big set ot stiff fake boobies. Or a gld-plated iPhone ("I'm phony", more likely!) Usually bought by people who didn't sweat to earn that same money...
You wouldn't believe how often, in Lebanon, one drives by a completely trashed luxury car worth decades of minimum wage. Those who can buy them don't care. They suffer from a momentary lapse of reason that seldom lasts more than a lifetime...
"There's a sucker born every minute. And that sucker, gentlemen, is our target clientele."
As a sensible person I know once said, if they're stupid enough to shell out the cash, it'd be rude not to take it.
$5 billion a year? Heck, It wouldn't keep me from sleeping at night to be at the receiving end, if it makes them so happy. Like collecting rain for drinking water. "It's just laying there, who wants it?"
If some day I want a ringtone to know when it's MY phone ringing, I'll just download a MIDI/MP3 file from my PC. I've got plenty of very nice free stuff I collected from this blog's links!
"Decepticons... Decepticons...
- Oh, hey, that's for me. The world must be in peril again." ;-)
Of course, this requires the effort to actually move the file yourself, instead of ordering one like some pizza delivered to your doorstep.
Heck, these days, one can fart the Kazakhstan national anthem, record it with his phone, and just put it as a ringtone! Cost: zero rupees.
(Saaaaay... do you think it would sell?)
Ah, but to download your midi/mp3 file, do you have the $25 cable? You need this even if you download freeware ringtone downloaders (unless your phone can Bluetooth, but then, can your PC?).
Verizon didn't really want you to know that you could do something other than buy their $50 bundle of cable and software, or you $2:50 or whatever per tone (probably not transferable to your new phone).
In the original Hitchhikers Guide there is a reference to "Digital Watches" I believe in the movie they updated the reference to "Digital Ringtones".
"One look and I was on the road to ruin".
I quite like my Ma Na Ma Na ringtone, from the muppets. Just grabbed the MP3, cut it down to a 30 second clip and transfered it to my phone. :) I believe I did it via the SD card. Easy... and free... and I've never heard anybody else with that one. Plus it starts nice and quiet and makes everyone happy. Once had a real estate agent who started dancing to it...
I don't even have a cursed cell phone (lucky me, I know :-), so I'm not sure about that, but I think I could e-mail it to myself as an attachment. Or use Wi-Fi. Something of that modern stuff with a fancy name, whatever.
I suppose if you can take pictures, you can transfer them, and do the same with basically any file. Modern phones are becoming so much like computers...
Ah, what the hey! My brother is a computer whiz, I'll just ask him for a trick from his bag. The big one, that he lends to Santa every year.
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