Having burst onto the new media scene, the podcasting craze has quickly developed an enthusiastic following. The "time-shifted" principle of being able to tune in to what you want, when you want, where you want and pause, rewind and replay, has proved to be a successful formula. Moreover, free-to-subscribe content has boosted podcast ratings beyond initial expectations.

Both audio and video content is available through podcasting, although radio has been far more popular to date. National broadcasters, such as the BBC (the UK) and National Public Radio (US), have been quick to pick up on the trend, omitting program music to overcome Digital Rights Management issues. There has also been mass production of made-for-podcast programs, and the creation of "podsafe" song and music catalogues.

But the buzzword – made by combining "iPod" and "broadcasting" – is somewhat of a misnomer: you do not need an iPod to enjoy podcasting, nor do you necessarily require a separate audio-playing device.

Mobile podcasting, or mobilecasting, is the publication of podcast content (usually audio) formatted for mobile phones. The benefits of an all-embracing communications device are clear: consumers always have their mobile phone with them – a tool which can now encompass their digital media at hand. As margins on voice and standard access decrease, podcasting presents significant traffic revenue opportunities for operators. The vision is becoming a reality as network and handset capabilities increase and working synergies between the telecom and media industries are created.

Traditionally, mobile phones have not been suitable for MP3 files, the default podcast format, because of a lack of specific MP3 support, memory and transport capacity. However, the rapid evolution of mobile networks’ capacity is helping to overcome that. With higher data rates, megabytes of data is sent over the air in a matter of seconds. Future cellular broadcast technologies will also concentrate on pushing out mass content even more efficiently.

Handsets are changing, too. The Sony Ericsson W950, showcased at 3GSM World Congress 2006, has a whopping 4GB of onboard storage, comes complete with touch screen for simple navigation and supports multiple music formats, including MP3. 

Also at the world congress, Motorola and Yahoo! demonstrated the result of their collaboration - an application that allows users to drag and drop podcasts directly from a PC to their mobile phone.

Growing awareness in mobilecasting is leading podcasters to create programs specifically for mobile phones, such as Mobilcast. Launched in August 2005, the software from US mobile technology innovator Melodeo, brings podcasts directly to mobile phones so users do not have to be online to download their favorite programs.

An updated version now includes new, experience-enhancing features, such as the ability to resume a podcast, in the same place, if the user is interrupted by a phone call.

So what's really in a name? The mobile phones' podcasting potential begs the question.