It's about podcasts, not music, stupid!

I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of this before, but I think the potential in the iTunes Phone/iPod Phone/iPhone is more about podcasts than just about music. This is where the killer app is, and the real opportunity for the phone companies to start getting people to use data.

I have to confess I haven't done the economics yet (of cost to download a podcast for instance), but if via a mini iTunes app on the phone which can support podcasts (and therefore some sort of RSS effectively!), then there is a vehicle to subscribe to fast-moving stuff on the fly. This might be worth the premium. I still can't for the life of me see why people will pay $2 for a music track to their phone when they can get it for 50% on their computer and move it to a phone. Mostly, music is not that time sensitive. Podcasts however can be time sensitive, and this avenue would open up a whole new world to producing (or at least making available) podcasts for on-the-go consumption.

Podcasts give Apple, Motorola and the phone companies a win-win-win situation.

I don't know how much this will be talked about at today's announcements, and it does go against prior briefings which I believe indicated that downloads would NOT happen direct to the phone from the iTMS. But the more I think about it, the more that is the direction it has to go.

Can anyone tell me why I'm talking garbage on this one?