The ringtone, the ringback and the endtone. Yeah, thats right… I said endtone. As if the ability to customize and even create what melody you and everyone on the bus hear when you mother calls your cell was not enough, soon you may also be able to play a tone when you hang up on her as well. The idea – conceived and developed by Brock Muir, founder and president of Endtone – is to have a musical tone similar to a ringtone play to signal wireless users and others (the tone will be audible to those around the caller) when a call has ended, been disconnected or dropped by the network.

Endtone has filed a patent on the “disconnect tone” technology.

Endtone technology is based on the same audio file formats (monophonic, polyphonic and digitized audio) and video formats currently found in today’s mobile content industry.

Muir Said he got the idea while using a Nextel phone and being frustrated that there was no way to signal that the conversation has ended (as if silence was not enough).

He claims that the Endtone has its commercial benefits in that a lot of people who experience the “drop-call” phenomena go on talking not knowing the call has really ended. With Endtones, people wouldn’t have to keep continuously asking “Are you still there?” as a recognized tone will signal that the call has been disconnected or ended (or that your friend hung up on you).

While some phones do in fact beep or vibrate when a call is dropped, Muir believes that it is the ability to customize that tone with music that will make endtones a real winner. According to Southeastern Institute of Research, 65 percent of the 674 people that responded to their survey said that one or more functions of the endtone are important. Forty percent said they would spend equal or more on endtones as they would on ringtones. And 60 percent said that endtones were a new way to personalize their phones.

[via Wireless Week]

Technorati Tags: endtones, patent, ringbacks, ringtones

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