The Reach - Podcasting and other Portable Media Strategies

I guess it’s about time to discuss the iPhone.  I’ve procrastinated on writing this post, due to the potential impact the iPhone has on the market and yet weighing the risks to Apple and other phone manufacturers.  It’s somewhat difficult to be unbiased on either side of the battle that has begun.

First, let me say that the pictures of the iPhone (check here with my friend Blake Burris of CocoaRadio for some great firsthand shots) look great.  The concepts of the OS and Software the phone is built around sound great.  Watch Steve present the Keynote at MacWorld for details.

Question - how will we like typing on a completely flat surface (the phone screen)?  It may take us a while to conform to a new manner of typing.  We’ve all gotten comfortable over the course of our lives with the raised keys with “finger curves” and the feeling of pressing down to create a keystroke.  I’m sure we can adjust, but wow - it will take some committed early adopters to stick with it!

Visual voicemail is new to cell technology, but old hat to VOIP users.  I’ve had it for 3 years now - a great invention.  Glad it’s finally coming to cell phones, although, since I have a Blackberry, technically I’ve been able to do this for a long time.

As usual, Steve blows people away, generally until they walk away and go…”hey - I’ve been doing this for a long time - how come he made it seem so special?”  Welcome to the mystique that is Steve Jobs.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m looking forward to seeing this on the market and how it will force all the other manufacturers to get moving on some creativity.  We, the consumers, will all benefit.  Let’s be glad!

Eliot Van Buskirk writes an interesting post regarding Big Music and MP3 technology on Wired News yesterday.  His contention is that Big Music is being forced to adopt MP3 technology just as a weapon against iTunes.  He believes that Big Music will ultimately not allow Steve Jobs to run their lives.  They’ve played reasonably nice together so far, but maybe Steve has outlived his usefulness to them?

Eliot lists 7 reasons why MP3 has to be seriously considered.  I’d tend to agree with him.

So, relative to the title of today’s post, why is that relevant to podcasting?  Well, since MP3 is the audio techology that drives the recording and playback files in this podcasting world, it is critical that other peripheral uses stay alive so as to support a standards based audio delivery technology.  So, kudos (assuming Eliot is correct) to Big Music for keeping this corner of new media alive!