For example, Sony Ericsson and Nokia models each have their own trademark ringtone. This also goes with the wallpaper, theme and games. Having its own trademark functions will help in the successful advertising of the their brand. Aside from this, there are other special effect tones saved in the phone. These special effect tones can either be the sound of birds, waterfalls, melodious chants, etc.

Users, however, are usually not contented with a free ringtone, they are expected to experiment and explore the possibilities of downloading others. Why? This is because these freebies are usually not polyphonic. Polyphonic tones are the current standard of ringtones available in the market.

Polyphonic playing usually depends on the kind of phone used. A mobile can be said to be capable of playing polyphonic tones if it can simultaneously play about 16 notes at a time. Most of the high-end phones offered in the market are capable of polyphonic playing. Due to this advancement in technology, users have access to a livelier music.

A ringback tone can be assigned to a specific contact in the phonebook function of the phone. Through this capability, mobile users can assign any ringtone for each contact. This way, they can easily know who is calling or sending SMS messages to them. A specific ringtone can be separately assigned to an incoming voice call and a text message.

Current phonebook functions in high-end technology also let users insert a picture or image of the caller. Soon, videos can also be attached to each contact of the phonebook. In this case, a free ringtone from the manufacturer can be similar to their stand-by wallpaper videos.

The freebie tone offered by manufacturers is still basically a single-tone and not polyphonic in spite of the improvement of functions. It can be recalled that a ringback tone is supposed to be the indicator of an incoming call or text. This is the possible reason why manufacturers retain the free single-tone ringtones.

Along with the vibrate functions, they serve as the default format of the phone. In the instance of a virus attack, mobile users can easily revert back to the default format of the mobile phone and an original free ringtone will be activated for the convenience of the mobile user.