Ready To Throw Your iPod In The Trash?

All the pieces are falling into place for a technology battle for content in what I’ll call the iPod Middleman Wars. .

There are powers that be that want your iPod in the trash. Replaced with what? Something, anything else.

Who wants your iPod in the trash? You’d think it would be Microsoft who wants to replace it with a Zune.

You’d be right, but for the wrong reasons. Someone else wants something else to take the iPod’s place.

It’s obvious. The cell phone companies want their cell phones to become iPods. That makes sense, right?

You’d be right, but for the wrong reasons. It looks like a battle is brewing over anything to do with “pods” and media.

None other than Leo Laporte wants the term “pod” thrown out of Podcasting. His offensive against the use of “pod” comes at a sensitive time.

Apple is claiming ownership of anything “pod” and threatening to sue those using “pod” in an inappropriate manner.

Guess who wants to determine an appropriate use of the term “pod?” Apple.

Guess who wants to see your iPod trashed, and Podcasting outlawed in favor of a generic term called “netcasting?”

There’s a small but growing population of powers in the tech industry that want the term “pod” removed from everything the iPod stands for.

Why? Because anything “pod” (with the exception of Invasion of the Body Snatchers) is fully connected to Apple.

Apple wants it that way. Cell phone companies, netcasting services, and Leo Laporte don’t want it that way.

Even Steve Friess in Wired News is pointing out the potential changes on the horizon.

What’s happening that may change the iPod and Podcasting forever? It’s as elementary as ABC. Apple, Bandwidth, Competition.

Apple is pushing “pod” rapidly into the human vernacular with a hefty marketshare for the diminutive media player, but at the same time wants to own anything “pod.”

Meanwhile, bandwidth is increasing rapidly for cell phones, which may enable them to download, store and play Podcasts on some current and many future cell phones.

That market isn’t owned by Apple, and the first versions of iTunes-playing cell phones are too short on memory capacity to store much media beyond a hundred songs.

Is it any wonder that new services and products are popping up to dislodge iPods from their market leading position?

Wired reports that Nokia business manager Risto Koski says they don’t want to call it a phone anymore. It’s now a “multimedia computer.” What? “I see the PC or Mac as being a graveyard of podcasts.” What?

See what’s happening? There’s a bonafide push by media pundits, technology companies, the media, and competition, to remove the iPod from our hands and replace it with something else.

The something else isn’t well defined yet, and Apple will produce new products to compete, but you get the general idea. It’s a battle for the iPod’s survival, even when market share is hovering around 75-percent.

Leo Laporte is in favor of dropping the term “pod.” This could happen soon. Even CBS now uses “netcast” instead of Podcasting.

Is the iPod in danger? Is Apple’s grip on “pod” terminology good or bad? Is Apple the middleman and about to be squeezed out?