Mobile phone ringtones will create a €16 million business by the end of this year, the O2 digital media conference was told yesterday.
O2 product director Mr Campbell Scott said analysts reckoned the ringtones would be just one element of a burgeoning sector, with the mobile music market likely to hit €5 billion by 2008 in western Europe.
O2 has partnered MTV to provide a service allowing customers to download songs to a mobile music device, Mr Scott said. The Siemens device should be available here this summer.
Citing reports by Jupiter Research and Strategy Analytics, Mr Scott also said the photo messaging market could grow to €2 billion by 2008.
Mr Peter Coyle of Enterprise Ireland, said his organisation is "very committed" to developing digital media in the Republic - a term embracing text applications, music, email, multimedia messages and video streaming.
"The accumulated revenue for Enterprise Ireland client companies within the digital media entertainment sector is projected to be €160 million by the end of 2004," Mr Coyle said.
