eMarketer's Mike Chapman explains why early adopters listen to podcasts, and he projects that the podcasting audience will hit 50 million by 2010.
Is it still fair to describe podcast listeners as "early adopters?" In a survey published by Pew Internet & American Life in July 2005, a mere 13 percent of respondents were confident of the meaning of the word "podcasting." Only the term "RSS feeds" was less well known, whereas more than 50 percent understood "adware," "internet cookies," "spyware," "firewall" and "spam." 
Joining the podcast audience requires confident use of an iPod or MP3 player, as well as ease with the process of downloading syndicated digital content from the internet (although podcasts can be listened to and watched on a computer with an internet connection, it's their portability that attracts users). This will remain a constraint on audience size even though the number of consumers who meet these requirements will inevitably grow over the next few years.
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The extent of immediate comfort with the technology involved is not, however, the only factor that will determine the popularity of podcasting. Consumers have repeatedly shown that they can quickly overcome perceived technical issues in order to obtain a product or service that better meets their needs. Podcasting meets an important and proven consumer preference: it allows users to choose when and where they "consume" their entertainment or information. The pursuit of this freedom has driven many "revolutionary" products and services: the personal stereo, the laptop computer and the digital video recorder, to name but a few.
These and other factors underlie eMarketer's podcast audience projections, which show a total active audience of 15 million by 2010.
Mike Chapman is editorial director at eMarketer. This article is drawn from his new report, "Podcasting: Who's Tuning In?" Click here to learn more.