Nearly 70 Percent of All Ringtones Downloaded Are Purchased by Women, According to Telephia

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2005--

Pop Hits by Gwen Stefani, Pussycat Dolls and Mariah Carey and Rap/Hip-Hop Tracks by Bow Wow & Omarion and 50 Cent Are the Most Popular Ringtone Titles by Revenue Share

“Cell phones have become everyday accessories, and consumers are looking for creative ways to make a personal statement with their devices. The strong demand for ringtones shows the kind of distinctive individuality music generates.”

Telephia, the leading provider of performance measurement information to the mobile industry, reports that women outpaced men in purchasing ringtones by two to one during Q3 2005. Sixty-nine percent of mobile ringtones were bought by women, while purchases by men comprised 31 percent of the total revenue share, according to the latest Telephia Mobile Audio report, which tracks purchase activity for mobile ringtones, including traditional ringtones, realtones(1), ringback tones(2), and voicetones. Overall, more than nine percent of the wireless population purchased a ringtone during the last quarter.

"Ringtones provide mobile users with personalization and individualization," said Brian Monighetti, Senior Product Manager, Telephia. "Cell phones have become everyday accessories, and consumers are looking for creative ways to make a personal statement with their devices. The strong demand for ringtones shows the kind of distinctive individuality music generates."

The majority of buyers for the most popular ringtones skewed a younger age demographic. Telephia data shows that 40 percent of those who purchased the Hollaback Girl ringtone by Gwen Stefani fell into the 18-24 year old age group, while 51 percent were 25-34 year olds (see Table 1). Twenty-nine percent of those who purchased the summer hit Don't Cha by the Pussycat Dolls were 18-24 years old, with 59 percent falling into the 25-34 age group. Bow Wow & Omarion's Let Me Hold You and Just A Lil' Bit by 50 Cent skewed a younger demographic, with the majority of those who purchased the ringtones being 18-24. Rounding out the top five ringtones for Q3, buyers for Mariah Carey's We Belong Together were evenly split among 18-24 and 25-34 year olds, with revenue shares of 38 and 36 percent, respectively.

Table 1: Telephia Age Group Breakdown of Top Mobile Ringtones (U.S.)
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                                                       Age
Title                 Artist                 18-24  25-34  35-54  55+

Hollaback Girl        Gwen Stefani              40%    51%     8%   1%
Don't Cha             The Pussycat Dolls        29%    59%    12%   0%
Let Me Hold You       Bow Wow & Omarion         61%    33%     6%   0%
Just A Lil' Bit       50 Cent                   55%    26%    10%   8%
We Belong Together    Mariah Carey              38%    36%    20%   6%
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Source: Mobile Audio Report, Q3 2005
-- Note: Verizon data includes ringback tones only; Cingular data
includes AT&T subs only.

(1)A realtone is a ringtone with MP3 quality sound and vocals

(2)A ringback tone is the sound the caller hears when calling someone vs. the tone the called party hears on their device

About Telephia

Founded in 1998, Telephia provides syndicated performance measurement information to the leaders of the mobile industry. Telephia serves more than 50 mobile industry clients, including carriers, device manufacturers, content and application providers, retailers, infrastructure vendors and investment analysts. Telephia is the industry standard measure of subscriber share, customer satisfaction, device share, network quality, revenue share, advertising effectiveness, content audience and many other key performance indicators.

For further information, please visit our website at www.telephia.com or call 415-395-0500.