The NYT hops aboard the Podcasting train. Podcasting is one of those concepts where the right ingredients of technology, marketing and ease-of-use have combined at the right time to gain currency in not only a certain niche, but now the mainstream as seen through the mainstream media's coverage. In my book, Audible.com was the original Podcaster. (btw, I think a lof of people would agree that Podcasting hasn't quite reached a mass market point in terms of usability)

Another example? MP3 Players were around for years before Apple introduced the iPod.

Search engines: Remember the 1.0 search engines like Northern Light & AltaVista before Google changed the paradigm?

It's not just great technology though. It's great technology mixed with brilliant marketing and ease-of-use, the combination of which delivers a value proposition to the consumer that blows the others out of the water.

I think iPodder and other programs out there are great, but they're the 1.0 versions, not quite ready for prime time...can't wait to see the next revs.

[cross posted from my Soapbox]