Section 5 of 5
The Decline
How a four-billion-dollar market went quiet between 2008 and 2012, in Nielsen and Gartner figures.
- After 2007: The Ringtone Market's Measured FallUsing Nielsen and Gartner figures dated to the years they were issued — that the iPhone's arrival was the inflection point after which paid-ringtone revenue fell every year, tracing the mechanism: app stores, music libraries and the flat-rate data plan.
- The Numbers That Recorded the QuietThe Nielsen and Gartner market figures for 2008–2012, presenting the decline of paid ringtone revenue year by year with each figure attributed and dated, and noting which segments (truetone, polyphonic, ringback) fell fastest.
- PhonepayPlus and the Regulator That Curbed the Short CodeThe UK regulator ICSTIS — renamed PhonepayPlus — and its 2005–2007 rulings against premium SMS ringtone subscriptions, documenting the fines issued, the companies named and the rule changes that followed.
- Ringback: The Ringtone Only the Caller HeardThe ringback tone — a replacement for the standard ringing sound heard by the person making the call — covering Verizon's 2004 US launch, how the product was priced and sold, and why it remained a niche format that declined before the main market did.
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