“Companies like Studio Ochenta and Wondery already see the HUGE international opportunity here. Ochenta’s trilingual podcasts have been at the top of the charts in foreign markets. It’s a globe full of untapped markets. ”

— Skye Pillsbury, Inside Podcasting newsletter and podcast

17. New Podcast Apps

“More podcast apps will be made, offering new and innovative features but highlighting the lack of metadata available through the RSS feed. Apple will continue to slowly build up their proprietary information about hosts and guests, but Podchaser and other more open services will also help podcasting move more effectively forward.”

— James Cridland, Podnews

18. Smart Speakers

“Smart speakers will, once again, not take off as a podcast listening device in 2020. I wish I could be more optimistic about smart speakers, but there are still too many challenges for them to become a force in podcasting, particularly around the user interface. It’s hard enough to get non-techie folks to figure out how to listen on their mobile devices; get rid of the screen, and it’s even harder. I hope that Amazon, Google and Apple will invest in the user experience so we can see growth in smart speaker podcast listening in 2021–22.”

— Dave Zohrob, Chartable.com

19. Google Continues To Evolve

“More than 18 months after the launch of Google Podcasts, Google might bother to close down the unconnected Google Play Music Podcasts, its own, competing, podcast app. ”

— James Cridland, Editor, Podnews