The World as We Know It Is Changing Right Now, The Apple™ iPhone® Is Just Another Example January 22, 2007, Mountain View, CA—At least one Mountain View company founder is excited at the prospect of how businesses and consumers will regard Apple’s recently announced iPhone and the products that will emulate it. “This year, 2007, is the year of video-centricity. Apple’s iPhone will change for the better how companies and institutions will communicate with each other, its customers, and its markets,” according to Brian McMahon, CEO of the National Podcasting System. The iPhone was announced at this month’s MacWorld Expo, the annual event that features Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Comuter) (aapl) products. Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, unveiled the iPhone which combines features superior to its video iPod® digital media player along with Internet Access and mobile phone service controlled by an innovative user interface. “As exciting and highly touted as the iPhone introduction was,” said McMahon, “I don’t think most observers fully understand how the iPhone and similar products, sure to follow, will change they way they communicate.” McMahon is convinced that businesses and organizations will embrace the devices as compelling and far better means to communicate than is done currently. “Much of that communication,” said McMahon, “will be in the form of video podcasting created especially for the smaller but high quality screens of mobile video devices.” “We are excited about the iPhone, because when you combine our video podcasts with the amazing resolution of the iPhone which has more than twice the resolution per area of screen size than a typical computer monitor, you’ve opened up all kinds of new uses and users,” McMahon says, “For example, surgeons, technicians, research scientists, anyone who deals with detail and finesse will be drawn to the potential of podcasting.” “But really, it’s not about the iPhone, it’s about the beginning of the last lap of convergence. Convergence has been promised for so long. With the iPhone, here it is, all my contacts, all my music, all my movies, my access to the world, my access to new and unimagined services. Chief among those, from the point of view of the National Podcasting System, is the ability to dial-up or download information in the form of video podcasts critical to one’s business, one’s life, etc. It’s all right there in my pocket.” Podcasting is the delivery of media files over the Internet to subscribers using what is known as RSS feeds. As a relatively new medium, podcasting began mostly as audio files but today is routinely sent in video as well. Although the name implies a need for an iPod to receive podcasts, according to McMahon, most podcast recipients use a computer to listen to or view podcasts. However, says McMahon, with the advent of the somewhat larger and extremely high resolution screen of the iPhone, users will be more comfortable watching video, “and many of those videos will be podcasts.” The business trend, says McMahon, is towards more use of video to dynamically deliver news instantly to business partners, customers, and employees in the field.. While the YouTube phenomenon is a “scattergun approach” to delivering a message, podcasting is precisely delivered directly to a receptive audience,” says McMahon, “so there is no waste. Podcasts typically have substantially higher quality video, preserving the quality of the sender’s brand. Does a business really want to mix its message among Mentos and diet Coke experiments? Podcasting is a far superior medium.” As more Internet-enabled, mobile video players are used, they will become increasingly used not so much as entertainment devices but as communication devices delivering unimagined applications. As a science fiction fan, McMahon foresees a not-too-distant future. “In terms of education and training, the iPhone and podcasting are about as close as you can get to (the movie) The Matrix without having a networking port installed in the back of your head,” McMahon states, “Imagine a repairman or home-owner looking at a tricky, non-functioning valve. What if they could dial a number and instantly download a five minute, video description of how to repair it? Even in the tight surroundings underneath a sink, you could watch it? That is the real beauty of podcasting.” The National Podcasting System is a Mountain View based company that specializes in podcast production.