Portland, Oregon, April 10, 2006
Today marks the birth of Home Phone Tunes, Inc., (HPT), and the introduction of customized ringtones for the home telephone market. Home Phone Tunes will redefine the way consumers and traditional phone companies think about and use communication and entertainment services through home telephones. With the fall 2006 launch of the HPT Player, consumers will be able to download sound bites via the Internet and replace the traditional home phone ringer with custom ringtones.
CEO and Founder of HPT, Kirk Cameron, notes that the cellular ringtone market is a $4 billion dollar industry and growing. HPT's market research indicates that the fixed-line phone sector, however, is facing decreasing customer accounts and loss of access lines to cellular phones, music services and Internet access, all portable and wireless.
"HPT wants to provide phone companies with new landline options that will help them retain customers, and service consumer demand" says Cameron. "The HPT Player and Distribution Services have been developed to keep consumers from dropping home-phone service completely or switching to cell or alternate services. Our goal is to offer traditional home phone companies, broadband companies and VoIP companies enhanced landline service and products in response to the incredible competitive challenge from the wireless market," says Cameron.
The HPT Player will be distributed two ways. First, it will be bundled with a Carrier's current product, such as a local telephone company or with a cable operator. This option will allow the customer to purchase the HPT player directly from the phone service company for a monthly fee. The consumer will be able to select a "feature package" with free ringtones. Second, the HPT Player will be sold separately through retail channels for a one-time charge and include a varied number of ringttones. Additional ringtones can be purchased at anytime via HPT's Distribution Services created to deliver downloads from HPTunes' Music Library, other ringtone content providers as well as user-created ringtones.
The user has the ability to associate specific callers by their Calling Line ID and recordings. Each call can play a different ringtone that allows users to modify sounds files for personal preference. Once the sound file(s) has been customized, the user downloads the information to the HPT Player via a USB port.