Music, Multimedia and Money on the Move

I have to admit I'm a bit flabbergasted by wireless consumers' attraction to ringtones. Not to disparage any company making a good business in the sector, because from an industry standpoint, a $16.6 million U.S. market projected to grow to $404 million in 2005 is clearly a boon for the wireless market.

It's the social aspect of ringtones that confounds me: It's simply surprising that an industry that's already chastised for contributing to what many see as inappropriate and disruptive public behavior is able to find such success selling applications that will only add to the din. (In the interest of full disclosure, I am a strong advocate of wireless, but I also believe in polite use — I'm one of those who finds loud public talking and ringing annoying. As such, I haven't used a ringtone since I purchased a handset with a vibrate function, which I consider to be my own personal killer app.)

That said, the current ringtone phenomenon is more than likely a precursor to a much larger transformation of the way music — and other media, for that matter — is licensed, packaged, distributed and heard, as Jason Ankeny explores in this month's cover story (page 28). As they improve development platforms, sound and the process of negotiating with publishers, companies like Moviso are working toward a world where music can be pulled out of the spectrum and listened to anywhere, any time — taking mobile handsets closer to their presumed destiny of being multifunctional multimedia devices.

This issue also features Tim McElligott's analysis of how Agilent Technologies is working to harness ostensibly simple but technologically complex push-to-talk services (page 22). Agilent, on the forefront of network monitoring and testing, deciphered management of the millions of signaling messages that make P2T possible to help wireless carriers make the popular application better and more reliable.

Also this month, Ed Gubbins paints an interesting portrait of Fortune columnist and mobile venture capitalist Stewart Alsop, and Glenn Bischoff profiles John Muleta, chief of the FCC's wireless bureau and resident enforcer of the wireless number portability rule that takes effect this month.

As I write this, I'm on my way to the CTIA's Wireless IT and Entertainment show in Las Vegas, where I'll be looking to the legion of content developers to confirm the thesis that ringtones are only the beginning of the mobile multimedia movement. Look for coverage of the show in our December issue, as well as on our Web site, www.wirelessreview.com — which, by the way, is now manned by aforementioned editor and scribe Jason Ankeny.

Music is moving, P2T is thriving, money is flowing (or at least starting to) and numbers are ready to port. The wireless industry remains, as ever, a whirlwind of constant motion.