App: Mozzytone
Company: Compound Security Systems
Year it was a Top Mobile App: 2006
Why it was a Top Mobile App: When Welsh company Compound Security Systems unveiled their ultrasonic youth deterrent systems back in 2005, no one expected that the 17 KHz technology would be pirated and repurposed--as a ringtone that is inaudible to adult ears. The company tried to monetize it, but it was too late, with tech-savvy teens on both sides of the Atlantic designing their own versions of it. Click here [1] for more.
Its current status: To the company, what happened was a complete fluke. Simon Morris, the company's commercial director, said that the company "lost a lot of revenue that we should have made ourselves." However, it was hard to sue anyone who pirated the frequency and made it into a ringtone. The company, however, remains a "100 percent security-orientated company, "according to Morris.
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/top-mobile-applications-2006-mozzytone
[2] http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/special-reports/jumptaps-mobile-search-platform-top-mobile-apps-revisited-2006
[3] http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/special-reports/revisiting-top-mobile-apps-winners-2006
[4] http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/special-reports/myspace-mobile-helio-top-mobile-apps-revisited-2006