Apple was late to the game. In fact they tried to change the name away from podcast (in reference to the iPod). The TWiT team started calling them NetCast to appease Apple. In the end, Apple embraced the technology and dropped the name complaint.
By then the RSS feed tech was already well established along with a few podcast software aggregators.
By then the RSS feed tech was already well established along with a few podcast software aggregators.
Apple did not invent or even have a choice.