LOS ANGELES-Ring-tone company Xingtone Inc. announced it scored a first round of institutional financing from Siemens Mobile Acceleration. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“This investment is a significant development both for our company and the burgeoning mobile entertainment industry,” said Jonathan Schreiber, the company’s chief executive officer. “We are honored to be receiving funding and support from a leading investor specializing in wireless applications and technologies, such as Siemens Mobile Acceleration.”
Xingtone’s technology allows users to create custom ring tones and other applications by connecting their mobile phones to their desktop computers. Such content is typically sold through a carrier’s wireless Internet service. Xingtone’s technology essentially cuts out carriers and content vendors like record labels from the sales channel.
“Xingtone is proof that an open market model affords a greater consumer experience making it easy for them to merge their digital and mobile lives,” said Brad Zutaut, the company’s chairman and president. “Content does not have to be bound to a single medium; it can follow you wherever you go.”
Siemens’ Xingtone investment is notable because Siemens sells a music download technology to carriers that relies on close ties to record labels.
