When John Johnson hears the theme song to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ring out, it doesn't mean a gunfight is about to erupt. It just means he should answer his cellular telephone.
Johnson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, downloaded the tune for his phone recently. And he isn't alone in tapping the ever-expanding content of ringer tunes, games and graphics that are quickly gaining in sophistication and popularity.
New phones, capable of accepting downloads, along with a wealth of content, are fueling the growing trend, industry experts say.
Verizon reports that its customers have downloaded more than 11.7 million games, ring tone packages and other features since the service was launched last fall. In May, Verizon averaged 75,000 downloads a day, Johnson said.
But why bother downloading a butterfly screen saver or the theme song of a Western?
"It just gives me a kick," Johnson said "And it doesn't sound like anyone else's cell phone, so I always know when mine is ringing."
Besides being a kick for cell phone customers, the downloads are a new revenue stream for the carriers. Cingular Wireless game downloads, for example, cost between 99 cents and $5.99. One Sprint PCS plan costs $15 a month for unlimited usage of games and download time for ringers.
"With that $15 plan you get a $10 credit for downloads," said Lisa Ihde, a spokeswoman for Sprint PCS. "Some games cost $2.50 or $3 and you can keep them on your phone for a certain period of time."
While games are becoming more popular, ring tones were first, and still account for the most downloads.
On her phone, Ihde has assigned different ring tones for different callers.
"For my normal calls, it rings the Knight Rider theme song," she said. "For my callers that I don't have the number programmed, or there's no caller ID, it rings the Pink Panther song."
While phone downloads didn't catch fire here as they did when launched in Europe, the U.S. market is quickly catching up, said Denni Brueggemann, a Cingular spokeswoman.
"Part of the challenge originally was a lot of handsets weren't capable of downloads," Brueggemann said. "Now that U.S. customers are upgrading their phones, they have the opportunity to go download all these cool things we have for them."
Downloads can be found at carriers' Web sites, and in some cases, can be downloaded using just a cell phone.
