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What is Ringtones?
Ringtones are melodic sounds a cellular or cell phone makes when an incoming call or message arrives. Since cellular phones are significantly more sophisticated than landline phones, ringtones can be personalized to suit the owner's personal taste. A variety of ringtones have appealed to consumers, increasing handsets saleability. Ringtones are musical melodies frequently used on cell phones. The notes playing in various combinations give cell phone distinct ring tones. The sounds often indicate an incoming call or a cell phone alarm alerting. Ringtones have become increasingly popular in Europe and now many popular songs have been converted from midi files to the RTTL format for cellular phones.

Why use Ringtones
There are a number of reasons consumers use distinct ringtones.
1) Distinguish Callers - Advanced feature sets allow for different sounds to signify different callers.
2) Identification - When you are in a meeting and a phone rings you will know if its yours without having to look
3) Fun - Lets face, having a cell phone with personality and character is appealing to general consumers

Types of Ringtones
There are typically two different types of ringtones: monophonic ringtones and polyphonic ringtones.

Monophonic Ringtones
Monophonic tones are simple tunes, most commonly compatible with today's cell phones. The majority of cell phones can only make a single tone at a time. The monophonic ringtone tune is comprised of a series of sequential tones at different frequencies.

Polyphonic Ringtones
Polyphonic tones are played on cellular phones that have the capability of playing up to 16 separate tones at once. The combination of tones creates a harmonic melody. Polyphonic ringtones are more musical than a monophonic ringtone. Newer phones support polyphonic ringtones.

It is likely that future cell phones will be capable of producing musical ringtones of CD quality.