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Will MP3 take over as most supported ringtone format from cellphone manufacturers?

Global ring-tone sales are estimated to approach the $3 billion mark. In the US, market figures for 2005 range from $146 million to $300 million in annual sales. Some analysts predict growth upward of $900 million by 2008. [according to MercuryNews]. With legal music downloads steadily increasing, it seems inevitable that there is synergy between the two markets. It is said that full song downloads to mobile phones are also on the increase and with the rise of higher bandwith services as 3G and 4G, the Eastern markets are already enjoying the benefits.

MP3 has been a controversial part of the Internet's history. It's been so controversial that it has actually rooted the file format into the computer industry (because there's no such thing as...). With so many MP3 players being sold annually it will probably be a good few years before another file format dethrones it.

The marriage between cellular phones and mp3 players have long ago taken place. Most phones had problems with memory not being large enough to handle full songs, but there are already phones that take flash cards of up to 1 Gigabyte of data so that bridge has been crossed quite a while ago.

This brings me to one of the oldest conspiracy theories which I'll discuss as a comparison. I am sure that cars would have been able to run off any type of waste (or old cooking oil for what it's worth) long ago if it was not for the monopolies of the large oil cartels in the world. It's not a direct comparison, I know, but what may you ask have oil cartels have to do with MP3 playing cell phones? Well, for one, gas (or petroleum as some call it) is a 'proprietory fuel' which can be controlled in a way, by oil suppliers as it's made from oil. Just like that, in the ringtone industry, there are proprietory formats of ringtones which many manufacturers rely on to make extra profits, as well as whole industries of ringtone suppliers.

Surely it would be easier if all cell phones could just play MP3? Yes, but with the large availability of MP3, it might be a risk on the music industry's behalf for loss of profit on the one side, and then loss of profits on the manufacturers. It's a catch twenty two situation with the users losing out in the end! Some cellphone manufacturers do support though and I've got an idea it is in order to capture market share in the mp3 player industry. That's a good move.

To the question whether MP3 will take over as fully supported ringtone format my answer is, quite possibly. I do think there is value in supporting MP3 (and MP4 which includes video for future) and hope that we'll see more of it soon.