Marco Arment is the co-founder of Tumblr, the micro-blogging platform that lead the web 2.0 charge in the mid 2000s. He also created Instapaper, the “Read Later” bookmarklet web service. The guy’s a heavy hitter in the development world.
Last year he sold Instapaper to Betaworks for what I’m guessing was a lot of money. Now, he has his sights on the app market, according to the rumor mill. And that’s a good thing.
Anyone who’s tried Apple’s native app, knows it has a less-than-spectacular reputation. Sure there were improvements made recently, and I haven’t tried the latest incarnation, but I’m guessing I’d still find it wanting. I currently use Instacast, and I’ve researched Swell a bit, but I’m always on the look out for the latest and greatest.
Turns out Arment loves his podcasts too. He even had his own show, Build and Analyze, that he hosted with Dan Benjamin. It aired its last episode in December.
Suffice it to say, he’s familiar with the medium, and would honor the needs and wants of podcast addicts as far as interface and functionality are concerned.
Arment has said he thinks Apple’s latest operating system is ripe for app developers looking to cash in, as long as they are willing to buck the old ways, and go hyper-modern.
Will we soon see an iOS 7-specific application that gives the podcast listeners everything they need? We shall see, but Arment is definitely the man to watch.