For the past three years the consumption of Podcast audio and video media has continued to climb. Month-to-month tracking of the space in the past 30 plus months have seen a rapid rise in the consumption of content that unchains us from our personal computers.
All of this have been very plain to see and podcasting has become a household word. Even Larry King on CNN talks about his Podcast.
I have long complained that there was one thing missing from the space that would cause a tidal wave of new listeners. That tidal wave is now on the near horizon, and the company we have all been waiting for to join the party is about to in a big way.
That company of course is Microsoft, and thankfully they are finally going to join the party with Zune having full-fledged podcasting support. Then over a short period of time their other products like Xbox and Windows Media Player will have complete integration.
While it is not 100% clear what is being planned by Microsoft, I know that they have a project leader at Zune that gets it. So batten down the hatches, because when Microsoft brings podcasting to every Windows user in the world, there will be a second tidal wave of new listeners. The question is, will your data delivery network be prepared to handle it?
It is time that Apple was challenged and since they have all but abandoned the non-commercial content creator I firmly believe that Microsoft will have commercial content on one side of the fence and new media content on the other.
While Apple helped really expand the growth of podcasting with podcast support in iTunes in July 2005 they have done very little beyond that to help the space since then. In fact, I feel they have hurt the space more than they have helped it as it is nearly impossible for any non-commercial podcasters to break out. Their podcast directory is a sad state of affairs.