Charlene Li and Forrester, Part 2

Wow. Charlene and Forrester stirred up some dust yesterday. Some responded and said – "Yeh – that's what I have begun to think", such as Andy Beal at Marketing Pilgrim – others, such as John Furrier at Podtech.net are drinking the Kool-Aid.

Now, since I'm in the podcasting business, I admit to have been drinking the Kool-Aid as well. Let me put this in perspective. I was shocked to read that some were jumping off the bandwagon a short 9 months after iTunes incorporated podcast reception into their iTunes code. One thing I give Steve Jobs credit for is thinking ahead. He didn't push this for a 9-month window of buzz, folks.

On the other hand, saying podcasting will change the world by the end of next month isn't a correct statement either. I think we're in for the long haul. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) isn't simple yet, so subscribing to podcasts isn't simple, unless you're using iTunes. It will become more simple with the launch of IE7, whenever that will be.

Vast change will take time. We all have busy lives – more time spent in cars, out of homes, out of offices- therefore portable media demands will rise accordingly. To ignore that fact in the long term is a bad move. Whether we'll call it podcasting in the future is completely beside the point.