At first it was the mono phonic ring tones, then came the polyphonic ring tones, next came the real tones, and now it is the name tones in the public domain.  Mono phonic ring tones are capable of producing only one single melodic note at a time. A polyphonic ring tone plays multiple instruments from a MIDI file at the same time, making the ring tone sound like music. Real tones, technically speaking are mp3 songs or songs in another format.

Very often people got confused between real tones and polyphonic ring tones. The difference between real tones and polyphonic ring tones is the fact that polyphonic ring tones are .midi files and real tones are .mp3 or another music format. So, with the Midi files users are capable of hearing beeps like the polyphonic and monophonic ring tones do. While Mp3 files are compressed songs; so users of the phone hear the real song of the radio but only a shorter version.

Beyond these real tones, now you have name tones. As the name suggests it is like a real tone with your name in it. Name tones are the latest must have for your mobile phone. They're cool, fashionable and comes with loads of fun. You hear your name as a cool ring tone when someone call up; something like "Peter, you're telephone rings pick it up before it's too late." or "Hey Pete your cell phone rings, pick it up!"

One would find the name tones comes in different sort of style. There are pop name tones, bubblin name tones, hardcore name tones, r&b name tones and a lot more in the array of this genre. Wait before you get too excited and run for the name tones, it will work when your phone supports real tones. So if you look at the past when the monophonic ring tones were a huge hype in the mobile entertainment business, and later on the polyphonic ring tones became huge. The real tones and name tones will probably be the next huge mobile entertainment hype.

Now service providers are providing personalised mobile music name tones and free mp3 ringtones. There are Singing Name tone, Love Name tone: Your partner listen when they receive a call, e.g. [ Jenny ], my darling, oh please pick up the phone. And there is Caller Name tone: The phone will sing the contact's name when they call, e.g. [Christine ] is calling.