BASINGSTOKE, England—The ringtone market will continue to expand thanks to strong growth in developing markets and the introduction of new personalization products, according to new figures from Juniper Research.
The firm predicts a 22 percent rise in ringtone sales over the next three years as the mobile music clips ring up $6.6 billion by 2009. South America and other developing markets will experience 90 percent growth in ringtone consumption, Juniper found, while North America will continue to see strong uptake, with revenues growing 50 percent by 2009.
Juniper’s Bruce Gibson, who authored the report, took issue with other analysts who have predicted declining sales as consumers learn to create ringtones from their personal music libraries.
“There is no evidence that the demand for this type of personalization product is diminishing globally,” Gibson said. “Technology and product availability will determine the exact mix in any market, but the trend is clear—one of product substitution (e.g. realtones and video ringtones) rather than product-type obsolescence.”
