Duncan Riley> Those whacky folks from Pew Internet have released yet another study on internet usage habbits, this time considering MP3 players and podcasts.

Amazingly, the report finds that 6 million Americans have listened to Podcasts.

Readers may recall previous surveys from Pew, which included findings that only 38% of US Internet users know what a blog is and 8 million Americans write blogs.

Whilst I’d like to believe this figure, I think its a load of rubbish, and just for once I don’t believe Pew has underestimated the figure, I think they’ve totally over estimated it. We are talking listeners and not downloads here, and 6 million downloads is not unreasonable, but walk out into mainstream USA and ask an average person what a podcast is and I can tell you now, they won’t know. Podcasting has a great potential, particularly given the rise in MP3 players, in particular products made by Apple, but I just don’t see a concept that didn’t even have a name 12 months ago could be spread so far in such a short time. Another 12 months yes, but now? I mean, are that many people listening to Adam Curry and others? I’d guess that the figure would be closer to maybe 1 million people, if not less. I’d be interested to see if any podcasters are doing more than a couple of thousand downloads, except may a handful at the top. If the figure is 6million, perhaps they are getting confused with Audio books and similar products that have been around for a long time? Who knows, but I just don’t believe 6 million.

(via Steve Rubel)