cruel to be kind

I am getting a bit tired of studies just reflecting the limited American market. I discuss the Forrester report study on “just 1% interested in podcasting” here “Forrester study: If 25% are interested I would hurry“, but let me add from this side of the pond: Since podcasting started I have been for like 95% subscribed to content produced by Americans, and most of them are not big names.

I can see the attraction in the big names and brands and I absolutly believe that this is true with most users – give me a brand I trust, and I will believe you more. But I am questioning the amounts which are given in this study even for the American market and I can give you a reason for this: The amount of iPods sold in the last years.

Even if you make an estimate guess about how many people replaced their iPods with new ones, there are a lot of users out there. And *all* of them got exposed to podcasting through iTunes. And it is my strong believe that a lot of them would still not be aware that they download podcast regulary because it is “just a subscription in their iTunes, like Audbile”.

Do I see a bright shiny future for ‘just podcast’? Absolutly not. That will morph into something different. But that still does not make the fact go away that the bottle has been opened and you will not get it back closed. Therefor to advise companies to be cautious on this “podcasting” when as the report says 25% of all online users are well aware of podcasting is remarkable. Because all it needs is a topic they are interested in and they will fall for it.

Tags: podcasting