In 2004 an estimated £317 million was spent on ringtones in the UK. With the advent of ‘realtone’ technology, mobile phone owners can have their favourite chart hits as their ringtone. More than 3 million people in the UK change their ringtone each month to keep up with the latest songs. Martin 15, says, ‘everyone’s doing it – it’s the latest thing to do. It’s too boring to keep the same ring’. And they love to share their latest ringtones with their friends and other passengers on buses and trains.

Ringtone chart
The increased popularity of mobile phone ringtones has led to an official UK weekly ringtone chart which counts down the most popular tones that week. Sarah, 18, has many favourites, ‘my current ringtone is Christina Aguilera – “Ain’t no other man”, but I also really love Nelly Furtado – “Maneater” – it depends what mood I’m in that day!’

Teen trend
Teenagers are particularly keen to keep up with the latest trends. Recent research found that chocolate sales in the UK were falling for the first time in 50 years as teenagers prefer to spend their pocket money on anything associated with mobile phones.

Teen Buzz
Teenagers have also been using new ringtone technology to their advantage in schools. A Welsh company has developed a high pitched alarm called ‘The Mosquito’ which cannot be heard by adults. It is designed to drive teenage gangs away from shopping centres, but technology-minded teens have adapted the alarm as a ringtone. They can receive calls and texts in school and the teacher cannot hear them.

A secondary school teacher in Cardiff told the Metro newspaper, ‘All the kids were laughing about something but I didn’t know what. They could all hear somebody’s phone ringing but I couldn’t hear a thing.’ This technology works because from the age of 20, adults lose the ability to hear high pitched sounds. The Welsh company has now developed an official ringtone version of their alarm called ‘Teen Buzz’ and hope that it will become the latest global craze.

With technology developing so rapidly, who knows what tricks teenagers will develop next.

Kathryn
October 2006

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