November 25, 2005, New Delhi: Nokia, the global leader in mobile communications today announced the launch of its Videotones application for mobile users in India. Videotone is an innovative handset based application which allows users of Nokia Series 60 handsets to experience rich multimedia music and video on the move. Videotones can be downloaded through GPRS by sending an SMS vt to 5555. This would enable users to view their favourite music video every time the phone rings. Over the last few years, audio ringtones have evolved from mono to MIDI to masters (polyphonic) and now Videotones or Video Ringtones seem to be the latest trend. Being a pioneer in bringing new content and services to the mobile users, Nokia is the first handset manufacturer to provide this service in India.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Raju Shastry, Technology Marketing Manager, Nokia said, “With the changing consumer lifestyle today, mobile phones have emerged as a new form of entertainment.  Downloading of mobile content, especially ringtones has become immensely popular among mobile users. Videotones add another dimension to ringtones and will further enrich the consumer’s mobile experience. We anticipate huge popularity for this service going forward.”

What is a Videotone?
Videotone is a brief video sequence from a music video or animation clip to announce the incoming calls. When a user receives an incoming call, he/she will experience a high quality video clip on the screen announcing the call along with amazing sounds. The caller's name will appear on the display of the video, if it is already stored in the mobile phone memory. Subscribers can further personalize different videotones for different callers and also change the videotones whenever they wish to.

How does it work?
The user of videotones experiences a combination of Video and Ringtone on receiving a call. This application developed on Symbian C++ is available for all Nokia Series 60 devices. Videotones provide the user with a richer experience of combination of video and ring tone. Application gets invoked on the arrival of incoming call.

How to download Videotones?
Videotones can be downloaded and used just like ringtones through GPRS by sending an SMS vt to 5555, Nokia’s content portal. Once the application is installed on the Nokia phone, consumers can browse through the gallery of videotones available and download their favourite videotone through GPRS. Once the videotone is saved on the phone memory, the video plays every time the user receives a call along with caller details.

There are hundreds of videotones available on the Nokia gallery - ranging from international albums, indi pop, popular bollywood movies and even regional content.

Why Videotones?
Videotones services are aimed at offering our customers a unique and delightful mobile experience. With Videtones, we are giving yet another opportunity to the user to personalize their handset/applications to match their individual lifestyles.

Compatible handsets
The Nokia 3230 is a phone specifically suited for youth with features like a 1.3 mega pixel camera, Bluetooth and Internet. Videotones application is expected to be very popular with this segment of users. Apart from N3230, videotones are also available on other GPRS-enabled phones of Nokia like N7610, N6600, N6670, N6680 and N6681.