Ringing in your ears? According to the Yankee Group, ringtones (for your cell phone) will probably be a $500 million business in the U.S. this year and a multibillion-dollar business globally. That makes them the third most-popular wireless application behind talk and text-messaging. This spring, Yankee Group found about one-third of U.S. consumers had at least tried to download a ringtone; when asked what wireless service they'd spend money on each month if they had additional cash, 13-17-year-olds chose ringtones above all else, and ringtones were the #2 choice among those 18-24.

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