Caught someone staring at their mobile phone with a pleasant look on their face and wondered if they were victims of technological admiration. Well, they were victims alright, but not of technological admiration really. Just purely technological innovation. For people like them mobile phone ring tones are pass. Their latest mobile phone fancy is probably the video tones.

Video tones are literally the visual accompaniment of ring tones. It is a combination of the MP3 music that is played when a user receives an incoming call or message and its corresponding visual film or animation clip. This means that when a user receives an incoming call or message he/she can actually view a video on the screen of the mobile phone. The video is of high screen quality and just like in ring tones it is possible to add special effects to the audio in video tones. The name of the caller, if already stored in the phone book's memory, flashes on the screen.

Video tones being the next best thing to have happened to the mobile phone industry, several websites have been dedicated to the industry's new arrival. Personalization is still possible with users being able to video record personal clips and then setting them as video tones for callers. Depending on the operating system being used by the mobile phone manufacturer, it may be possible to assign different video tones for different callers. So how about setting a little monkey act clip for an annoying colleague?

Video tones can be downloaded just like mobile phone ring tones using USB cable chords or any of the available wireless services such as Infra ? Red, Bluetooth, and WAP. A lot of mobile phone handsets today have the GPRS system of directly downloading from the internet in exchange for a certain fee.

Industry reports indicate that when consumers have a choice between MP3 and polyphonic ring tones, and video tones handsets, close to roughly 30% of consumers pick up the more stylish video tones handsets. It is also estimated that over the next few years video tones enabled handsets will constitute roughly 60% of the 100 million handsets that enter the Indian market. Surely, if mobile phone manufacturers and service providers are jumping the bandwagon in huge numbers, there has to be something more to video tones than just being a fad.

Video tones are clearly aimed at people wanting more of music entertainment out of their mobile phone handsets, and also those wanting to make a style statement. Both the interest groups form a large percentage of mobile phone users globally, according to reports. A video tone is an attempt to fully exploit the potential of an MP3 and colour display enabled mobile phone. It is like taking MP3 mobile phone ring tones to the next level and allowing the user to enjoy the music in its full entirety. The youth culture, with whom these video tones are a huge hit, are the primary target audiences for international videos, animation clips, Bollywood clips, live concert performances, et al; and it is this interest that has made video tones a popular marketing tool.

According to experts, marketers have begun shifting their loyalties from ring tones to video tones for marketing of their products and services because of the visual treat. There is greater brand establishment, recognition, and recall when there is a visual aid, and therefore video tones serve a more fruitful marketing purpose.

With increasing number of mobile phone players bundling their handsets with video tones and websites offering a variety of clips to choose from, what remains to be seen is whether the consumers can afford to bear the cost of mobilizing their videos, which are priced at a premium rate as compared to their non ? visual counterparts.