News that Apple will be adding podcatching features in a future version is sweeping the (mostly techie) blogosphere. Phillip Torrone from Make: Blog writes:

Looks like we’re going to be getting iPodder-like functionality in iTunes 4.9 (coming out in the next 60 days). For now it seems there’s only going to be free content (not purchased through iTunes)

iTunes 4.9, coolio! But wait, Don McAllister then muses that iTunes will only be listing podcasts submitted to them, citing Mena Trott from 6a as the source for this muse. Several bloggers weigh in on how wrong this would be and is for it not to be open to all podcasters and not requiring a separate submission process.

Meanwhile Scott Rosenberg from Salon who attended the “D” conference and that Steve Jobs confirmed the addition of podcast aggregation features to a future iTunes version, adding that it would be live within the next 60 days, and confirming Torrone’s post:

Jobs promised that the ITunes podcasting platform would be open to all comers; there’d be a simple automated system to get your content included, he said. But it wasn’t clear from his demo — which featured material from professional outlets like public radio stations — just how grassroots-y the Apple model is going to be.

This was also Sunday, May 22. On Monday Dave Winer begins collecting links and trackbacks on the situation, adding his own insight to the situation:

And Apple is still tone deaf to amateurism, and public relations, calling podcasters “The Wayne’s World of radio.” The young Steve Jobs probably wouldn’t have seen it this way, but today’s Jobs is a studio owner.

Earlier today, Winer refers to the arguably the most popular podcatching software, the iPodder lemon as “weak”:

Apple’s position is so powerful because they will have content people are interested in, the podcasts people have been hearing so much about. They are rushing to fill the gap left by the weak iPodder software.

To keep things in context, I believe Dave meant that the iPodder team was no match for the big companies and that Venture Capitalists waited too long to invest in the market.

My take? The big companies often arrive late to the party. Perhaps, their caution is not wanting to take as many chances and betting on the sure things, which from a shareholder standpoint is wise. However, if a company wants to stay big they also have to innovate which right now it is exciting to see a number of companies doing (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple, etc). The whole podcasting phenomenon isn’t even a year old, so I think it’s a bit premature to call them getting into this within the next 60 days “being late” but the clock is definitely ticking.

Now if iTunes is going to require podcasters to submit separately to them, unless they are going to provide some sort of archive.org like free hosting then that is lame. If they do require that, then they’d be wise to setup some sort of API that programmers can hook into and make it easy in the podcast publishing software to make the process seamless.

All in all, I’m seeing iTunes adding podcasting as a natural, logical upgrade path just like Safari getting RSS. You give the features to users that they want if you want to keep your product in the running.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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