Podcasting: Blip, not boom, researcher says

Podcasts are to bloggers what MySpace sites are to teens: All the cool kids have one. So Forrester probably expected a big reaction with a new report that claims podcasts are not exactly taking the wired world by storm.

The research firm's new study claims that only 1 percent of online households in North America regularly download and listen to podcasts.

Forrester analyst Charlene Li says on her blog that while there's definitely a business case for podcasts, companies "shouldn't be dashing out to create expensive original content for a small audience--unless they gain value from being seen as innovative."

Blog community response:

"I completely respect Forrester as a research entity and while I can't back up my opinions here with hard cold facts, my gut tells me that they're way off on this one. Of course, as a podcast listener and co-host, I could be biased."
--Kevin 2.0

"I'm just not sure that the self-produced podcast shows will see the kind of growth I once expected."
--Marketing Pilgrim

"The realist will realize that like Internet 1.0, the real promise of digital media and Web 2.0 won't evolve quite as fast as the hype."
--Publishing 2.0