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September 13, 2005

"Podcasting Is Taking Off Like A Rocket."

Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod Nano and new iPod phone (the ROKR) last week to much fanfare. Some interesting statistics came out of the presentation. As Jobs stated, "Podcasting is Taking Off Like a Rocket."

• After offering podcasts on iTunes for two months, it has 7 million podcast subscriptions.
• iTunes offers 15,000 podcasts and adds 1,000 new podcasts each week.
• 30% of cars will offer iPod connectivity in the US in 2006.

That last statistic is incredibly huge for podcasting and audio learning in general. One of the biggest barriers right now to mass consumer adoption of podcasting is that there isn't an easy way for most people to listen to their iPod in their car. Most people have CD players in their car and so the only option is to play the iPod through their car stereo using an FM transmitter. This works marginally well depending on where you live and the type of device you are using but it's still a bit clunky. When people can simply plug a cord from their iPod directly into their stereo and have crystal clear sound this market will explode.

Thanks to Kevin Dugan over at webpronews.com for the heads up on these stats.

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