Virgin Mobile USA is launching the Kyocera Cyclops handset with a deal with Warner Music Group for TXT Tones. Naturally WMG is making a big deal out of this (the first time TXT tones are in the US an dall that) and are possibly hoping the fact that they are currently exclusive to this Virgin handset will encourage people to buy them. For those who don’t know: “Each text tone is about three to five seconds long and can be assigned to incoming text and picture messages, offering the users the option to assign personalized TXT Tones for anyone in their phone book. The WMG catalog will be available only to Virgin Mobile customers starting November 2 through November 14, 2006.” I’m pretty skeptical of the demand for incredibly short tones designed for indicating the receipt SMS messages, because people can already link ringtones to SMS messages. In fact, the ringtone market is peaking because many handsets now allow you to use MP3 files as ringtones, and I see this going the same way. There’ll be a niche for it, for the hyper-cool who like to personalize everything, but I don’t think it’s going to be mass market.
There’s another service launching with this handset…”Virgin Mobile Audio Messaging [VAM] lets a user first set up a contact list, similar to an IM “buddy” list, to see who’s online and available to get ‘VAMed.’ They then record their message and hit send. If the recipient is available, he or she can reply right back. If not, the audio message will be waiting when they get back. VAM sessions can also be saved on the handset so the user can play them back later and share with friends.”
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