I really wonder why Apple and iTunes still have so much influence in the podcast space. They have less than 40% market share in the US, their strongest market. In Europe, Android has greater than 75% market share. Is the podcasting audience so different than the mobile market in general? If not, why do so many publishers act as if iTunes is the only place that people find podcasts these days?
It's because Apple integrated podcasts really early and everyone else has still been ignoring them. I know someone who switched from a Windows Phone to an iPhone spurred in part by the desire to listen to podcasts. Google is slowly lumbering into the podcasts space but it's under their Google Play Music umbrella so it's hobbled by being part of that product (e.g. if Google Music hasn't launched in your country you can't listen to podcasts.)
>if Google Music hasn't launched in your country you can't listen to podcasts
This is such an Apple-centric way of thinking. Google launched their first podcasting app (Google Listen) in 2009. It was only discontinued in 2012 after there were a plethora of better apps in the Play Store. If you care about podcasts at all, you weren't waiting for them to be integrated into Google Play Music. You've been using one of the dozens of excellent 3rd party clients that have been available for years.
Actually it's worse - here we have available Google Play Music and podcasts aren't.
Meanwhile I can actually listen to them in any number of significantly better apps (e.g. PocketCasts) so having them available via RSS is pretty important to me.
