Blue Frog makes splash with ringtones

What: Blue Frog Mobile

Who: Ron Erickson, chief executive

Employees: 22, including part-time and contract workers.

What it does: Sells wireless content, including ringtones, images and games.

How it works: Customers whose phones are compatible with the service and who are customers of T-Mobile USA, Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless can order content at www.bluefrogmobile.com. The company sends the content directly to the cellphone, and the charge appears on the user's monthly cellphone bill.

Big business: Erickson said ringtone sales were a $100 million business in the U.S. last year, compared with $3.5 billion worldwide. He wouldn't give financial information about his company, but said sales are growing rapidly.

Coming from abroad: "This is one of those examples where people in Europe and Asia were ahead of the U.S. in terms of adoption," Erickson said. "It's really looking at what's going on in the world and seeing an opportunity in the U.S."

Not just an egghead: Most recently, Erickson was chief executive of eCharge, a Seattle company that offered an alternative to the credit card for online purchases. Before that, he was CEO of telecommunications services company GlobalTel Resources and chairman and chief executive of Egghead Software, the software retailer.

Blast of the past: Erickson sees some similarities between Egghead and Blue Frog. "Egghead had a cool name," he said. "It was a consumer-driven company giving consumers lots of choice at a point in time when it was difficult to decide what to put on your machine."

The real blue frog: Four blue poison-dart frogs live in a large glass terrarium in Blue Frog's offices, and Erickson said he thought the name — minus the poison-dart part — was cute and clever. Every time someone buys Blue Frog's cellphone wallpaper featuring the blue frog, the company will make a contribution to the nonprofit Amphibian Conservation Alliance.

Standing out: Blue Frog has numerous competitors in the wireless-content business. How can the company differentiate itself? "We're cooler, hipper, more fun," Erickson said.

Future influencers: Right now, ringtones are barely a blip in the music industry. But Erickson said he could imagine a day when songs break onto the music scene as ringtones instead of on the radio or another medium.

Quote: "As the phone develops more capacity, memory and higher quality, it will truly become a handheld media and entertainment device," he said.

— Kim Peterson