Smarter Ringtones For Smarter Phones?

Wireless

As everyone over the age of 30 tries to understand the success of the ringtone market, some are realizing that there are plenty of people out there who just don’t want to have some random pop song play when their phone rings — but might find something else interesting. That, it seems, is the thinking behind Avaya Labs’ plan to create “intelligent ringtones” that tell you who is calling, and maybe some additional information, such as that they’ve tried calling you three times without reaching you. This is raising some immediate skepticism from those who point out that this has little to do with what makes people by ringtones — but perhaps that’s the point. These more intelligent ringtones seem more likely to be targeted at the “non-ringtone” demographic. While the initial idea is a bit weak (I can see who’s calling on the display, can’t I?), adding additional intelligence to the ringtone can certainly make some sense in creating more useful information output.