Yamaha Expands Ringtone Melody Distribution Service Throughout China

Yamaha Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of musical instruments and a leader in digital audio, announced today that it will expand its “Ringtone@YAMAHA” ringing melody distribution service in China giving customers using CDMA mobile phones of China United Telecommunications Corporation (China Unicom) a vast choice of different melodies for their handset ringers. The service to distribute harmonic 16- and 40-tone ringing melodies nationwide will begin on July 1, 2003, permitting China Unicom CDMA mobile phone subscribers.

The new service will offer ringing melodies in a wide range of genres, including the latest Chinese pop hits. It will also provide a weekly listing of recommended melodies. More advanced functions such as search capabilities and a request area will be added to the site after the service launch.

“We are delighted to be able to offer China Unicom customers many new ways to personalize their mobile phone handsets with Yamaha’s unique ringing melodies,” said Keiji Taniguchi, general manager of Yamaha’s ringing melody division.

“China Unicom is one of the leading providers of mobile phone services in China and we are confident that as demand for internet-capable CDMA phones continues to expand, more users will seek the added value and enjoyment that our ‘Ringtone@YAMAHA’ service offers them,” he added.

Subscribers will be able to select different high-quality, harmonic ringing melodies from among a wide variety of Chinese, Japanese and Western pop hits, television theme songs, popular Japanese dance classics, club sounds, soothing music box melodies, and authentic piano music.

Background

In tandem with the explosive growth in mobile phone use in China over the past few years, use of internet-capable CDMA phones has also expanded rapidly since China Unicom launched services in January 2002. The number of users has grown from 7 million at the end of 2002 and is expected to reach 20 million by the end of 2003.

Yamaha already provides ringing melody services in Hong Kong and Guangdong, and the”Ringtone@YAMAHA” service will draw on the expertise and experience Yamaha has gained in these operations as well as from the company’s success in supplying 3.4 millionusers in Japan with a vast selection of melodies optimized for each mobile phone model.

Yamaha’s ICP partner will be Hong Kong-headquartered iiL Corp. Ltd., which collaborated in launching ringing melody distribution services in Hong Kong.

Yamaha hopes to gain widespread acceptance for its ringing melodies in China’s potentially huge market.