Earlier, I had some thoughts on podcasting and its potential impact on car culture. Of course, my brain won’t stop working, so here are some thoughts on podcasts and bandwidth from a mobile perspective.
The bandwidth issue is starting to raise its head. Even though bandwidth’s gotten cheaper since “Could Success Soon Kill Your Webcomic” was written in 2001, 27 megabyte podcasts are a bit bigger than 200K images, and it’s just a matter of time before people start feeling the burn from their ISPs - Dreamhost now gives me 192 gigabytes of bandwidth a month, which would let me send out, to make the math easier, about 20,000 10 meg MP3s a month without incurring extra charges, which would support 1000 listeners a day if it’s a Monday to Friday gig. Or something. This isn’t really key to my topic, I just want to get the rough idea across, and hey, here’s a possible tangent: is 1000 people enough to attract advertisers?
People are looking into using Torrents and such to deal with this, but then the bandwidth problem expands to hit consumers, which isn’t a big deal, unless the consumer’s on a mobile device using GPRS or whatever (non-WiFi) technology is available. While some parts of the world have unlimited data plans, Canada’s largest wireless data network provider really, really doesn’t (although their newly acquired subsidiary Fido still offers all you can eat GPRS for $50) In fact, it’s generally cheaper to listen to a podcast over the phone in Canada instead of stream the data to your mobile.
Now, I’m not the best user of cell phones (I’m all data, no voice), but think about it: podcasts over the phone network. Sure, it would tie up your phone line, but you’re not supposed talk on a cell phone while you’re driving anyway. You could call some number that would be a gateway to a web site’s (or multiple sites’) podcast library, and you’d just listen. This is actually one of the early business models for the home telephone, and maybe it’s worth a second look - on my wireless plan, it’s cheaper to talk for 20 minutes than it is to download a 10 meg file.
Or how about keeping the content PC-based, but using VOIP technology like Skype to deliver it? The hook here is that Skype already has a billing infrastructure in place for their calls to land lines, so this could enable the infamous micropayment structure that everyone’s waiting for, but that HTTP doesn’t seem to be handling very well (I figure, at least, or we’d see more of it, consumer preference be damned.)
Bandwidth is getting cheaper by the minute, and mobile carriers are responding, but at a slower rate. At the same time, newer and bigger content seems to be appearing faster than ever. 2005 will be an interesting year for delivery and subscription mechanisms, or at least, no less interesting than each of the past 10 years have been.
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