I haven't spent a lot of time listening to podcasts, at least not yet. But to me the question is whether the medium offers advantages, or rather whether there are specific situations where it has those advantages.
I've been writing a blog about music. And I've been using the iTunes Music Store as a way of giving the reader samples of the music I describe. How much more natural to turn the whole thing into a podcast and let the reader/listener encounter the music in context?
Or think of podcasts as blogs for people who spend too much time in their cars. Yeah, most podcasts are likely to be poor. But that's equally true of most blogs, most personal websites, most flickr galleries. And just as budding writers and photographers can discover their audiences on the web, would be DJs and talk radio hosts can have their chance to be in the public ear.
I think it's way too early to know whether podcasts will go the way of websites, where personal sites gave way to corporate presence and ecommerce (and are now making a major comeback); or be more like blogs, which have started out a mix of personal and professional and have retained that mix. I'm not taking bets either way.
Can't you see that he's making a point by taking the extreme position? Personally, I believe that the only way to know how good Apple's products are is to have some exposure to the alternative. And sometimes the alternative is good. Fortunately for Apple, that isn't the usual situation.
Why Podcasting Will Fail
Are You With Us or Against Us?