We agree that currently the iPod Touch is the "Defacto" standard for multi-media players. You can listen or just watch an elearning course without having to be in front on a computer screen. But the iPod Touch is just a delivery mechanism, what is key is the content and how Spectacular and engaging the content is. If your audience or students are not engaged, they are not going to experience your message. So who currently has the biggest market share? Apple with their iPods…Market share = "Defacto" standard.

– Pat & Lorna Shanks
http://SpectacularPresentations.com

Neither the iPod nor any other player has yet achieved what podcasting really needs from a device: the ability to find, subscribe to, download, and listen to podcasts without needing to connect to a computer, through an interface my mother can understand. Even the iPod Touch doesn't quite accomplish that.

I'm still hoping Alex's idea of pre-loaded players will catch on. I wish that The Teaching Company would use them for courses. They could even ship them out in cases like the ones they use for audio cassettes and CDs now. For this kind of device, you could even omit the USB port and make fans of DRM happy. There's certainly no need for an expensive, slick gadget a la Apple.

For getting content updated automatically, the iPod/iTunes combination is familiar to people who listen to music on their iPods (most of them), and it has the advantage of being automatic once it's set up. The fact that I dislike it myself is irrelevant: if 85% of the people who have media players have iPods, that's the device to focus your attention on. The stiff-necked geek types like me can figure out how to subscribe to a feed and get content onto and off of an MP3 player by ourselves.

I find myself with a podcast consulting client who is so technophobic that iTunes terrifies her. Nevertheless, she was still able to click the "play" button on a podcast page. That's the person podcast producers need to work to reach.

MP3 players will soon disappear.

Why?

Because it will be replaced by phones mostly.

Why?

Because everybody has a mobile phone and they all soon will have similar features to the iphone (phone, mp3 player, youtube player, internet browser, big screen, etc…).

The bottom line?
Phones will be our MP3 players and Apple is a very small player in this industry (they want 1% market share by end of this year). Manufacturers like Nokia and SonyErricsson will/already surely understand that, and that means that it will be an all-different strategy for online information marketers.

Alex, even though you have 5 MP3 players at home right now, I can bet with you that within 2 years from now, you'll have most of your "active" content on your phone (might be an iphone or another brand!!).

So, are you ready for the change?

I've been using MP3 players for several years, but I just purchased my first Apple iPod. I was tired of struggling with the poor user interface (and magically disappearing music) with my previous MP3 player. In today's market, I believe the iPod is clearly the easisest to use - especially by non-techies.

I'm now an owner of multiple MP3 players. I'm not separating the two players based on content (music vs. educational) - I'm separating them based on how I use them. My new iPod touch will contain music, educational programs, and movies/TV shows - my best content. My old MP3 player will be used exclusively at the gym - still containing music and educational programs. I tend to "abuse" my MP3 player at the gym, so I'm using the old one there and keeping the new one out of that environment.

Although the iPod is the current "standard", I'm hoping that other companies will improve their products and interfaces. Competition is good - without competition Apple has less incentive to continue innovating their products.

Steve Sponseller
Innovation Strategist

Don't forget the web browser!

Hey guys: re: "iPod as "defacto" standard for Podcast reception" I'd say don't forget the web browser. Listens/views from viral, streaming, web-based, in-browser plays/ apps I think blows the doors off any syncing device pretty handily. 80%/90% to something in the teens maybe for itunes/ipod/zune/creative/et al?

I remember when the "podcast" name was first being bandied about and I was grumbling on posts because I knew the name would severely box in the potential of the idea. I had the first generation of viral Feed Players ready to launch which were the first to use mp3s-in-rsses (ie podcasts — though it read not just from enclosures but stripped mp3s from the description tag as well as enclosure/podcasts were so new) as a playlist format - and I knew that if you put your content in an rss it is silly to think that only one type of device can consume that content. And I thought - and still do - that the poor name "podcast" has unnecessarily limited people's and company's perceptions of this distribution method's true scope and potential.

"In today's market, I believe the iPod is clearly the easiest to use - especially by non-techies." Don't get me wrong, getting media via podcasts while you are away from the desk is great. And I agree in this category Apple has really integrated it well into its devices (trying to own the whole idea I think.)…

… I think as a publisher, or someone like my company who create services for publishers, you want to publish once and have many different distribution methods available for your audience to consume your show, which is the philosophy we take…

… but my sense is that the easiest way for many many people to consume podcasts is by clicking a play button on (some) Flash-based browser apps and it plays right away and you get a bunch of show notes with links that you can visit right away, channel info and other info right then and there.

Don't forget that the market for often-used browsers and web surfers dwarf mp3 device owners (and even realistically-capable media cell phones) by very large margins.