Polyphony could drive you nuts
(Originally published on infoSync) Back in the day, your phone would ring, and the tone would be so annoying that you just had to notice it and pick up the phone. That’s how it went, and for many, that’s how it was supposed to be. There were many people out there who changed their ring tones frequently to have one that fit their style — but whichever one they chose, a phone sounded like a phone.
Recently, I received a new phone to play with, the Samsung SGH-T100 (a review will follow shortly), which is my second phone with support for polyphonic ring tones. The first one was the NEC N21i, the only phone available for the German I-mode service by E-Plus. As a short reminder, polyphony support means that a phone can play more than one chord at the same time, which commonly ranges from 4 to up to 64 chords, dependant on the engine available within the phone. Another factor is the quality of the speaker of the phone, seeing as how a poor speaker results in poor sound no matter how many notes you play at the same time.
I had already heard that the sound of the Samsung was superior to that of the NEC phone, but I was still surprised, because the ring tones that come with the SGH-T100 are really, really good. As with the N21i, they are the eye-catcher — or rather ear-catcher — that turns heads. Once the phone rings, and the realization kicks in that this is a phone that is ringing, people want to know what kind of phone it is. Now, read that sentence again and take a brief pause to contemplate the the realization part. Exactly; it might not kick in that it is a phone that is ringing. Twice now, it didn’t for me.
I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when the phone started to “ring”. At that moment I started to wonder why my Pocket PC suddenly started playing MP3s again, or if there was something going on on the PC, or if there was some music coming from somewhere else in my apartment. Completely dumbfounded, it never crossed my mind that this music — I really have to say music, and not ring tone — was coming from my phone, until it stopped and the fixed line phone started ringing. By then, I realized that it was the phone. The second time it happened was when I was eating something with friends and suddenly one of them said: “I think that’s coming from you.” What she meant was the music that suddenly started playing softly arround us.
One might argue that the phone is too new and I simply don’t have the ring tone implanted in my head yet, but the point remains. Ring tones neither ring, nor are they tones as soon as they become polyphony. Sure, you could just use your old ring tone, but believe me, you won’t. These things just sound too good. I’m not smiling at the thought of going back to using my old Siemens ME45 again, which doesn’t have polyphonic ring tones.
Also worth noting is that you can run, but you cannot hide. Websites where you can download ring tones are already doing good business, and slowly but surely it seems as though royalty issues are getting ironed out (at least here in Germany). All the while, more and more mobile phones support polyphony, starting with the Samsung phone and moving onto the new Siemens C55, the Nokia 3510, Nokia 7650 and the Danger HipTop, aka T-Mobile SideKick. Most mobile phones that will come out in the future will have polyphony support at some level, and those without will stop selling. At the same time, websites will offer polyphonic ring tones that resemble the original song they are portraying very closely.
Musicians will start composing polyphonic ring tones, and they might even make considerable amounts of money from them. Every hit out there will be available as a ring tone too, and there might even be subscription services that allow you to have the top 3 selling chart songs on your phone as ring tones at all times.
At the same time, though, every single phone will have a vibration feature as well as a some other capability to get noticed by the user. Why? Because whilst a normal ring tone might still be supported in many places, mankind will go nuts with music popping up everywhere — and certainly so when a cacaphony of ringtones burst out simultaneously.