Feb

12

Next-Gen Player: No Podcasting?

February 12, 2007 |

According to Wired News’ Eliot van Buskirk, a San Diego based comany named Broadband Instruments is working on a stealth next-gen MP3 player. The three founders, Jim Cady, Dennis Mudd and Janathan Sasse have all worked for major music players before (Diamond, MusicMatch and iRiver).

The new device is going to incorporate wireless sharing and is going to hook up to what they call the “internet radio ecosystem.” With that, from what I can gather, they don’t mean podcasting, but streaming. Here is the relevant part of the article:

The device will feature wireless connectivity, a new type of integration with online radio stations, a social aspect and most likely some sort of automatic customization feature for recommending new music, according to a source familiar with the product. It’s unclear whether these features have all been finalized, however, and some details could change between now and the product launch.

Well, I sure hope they will incorporate podcasting. It makes me a bit nervous that writer didn’t say anything about it and the spec list (though not final) doesn’t allow for it either. As I have said before, I think this is the year that will make or break podcasting as a viable mainstream medium and for now, the signs I see don’t point in a good directions.

Add to that that the traffic trends at both podshow and twit are pointing down (though that doesn’t mean downloads of shows are down necessarily, it does at least mean that listner involvement is down) and we are looking at a grim future for podcasters.

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