Only two days after the launch of iTunes 4.9, which for the first time supports the download of podcasts, Apple has declared that now it has over 1 million subscribers to this service.

The podcast folder included in iTunes 4.9 offers podcasts coming from 3,000 different sources and the webmasters of such sites have reported significant increases in the level of traffic.

Some of them have even reported an increase of 10% with respect to the value recorded before the release of the podcasts-friendly iTunes.

It is expected that the number of podcasts' users will increase from its current value of 6 millions to perhaps several tens of millions.

The latest statistics have shown that in the United States only there were about 15 million iPod owners, but the podcasts are compatible with any type of MP3 Player.

Apple has also announced that right now about 1.5 million songs are available by means of the iTunes 4.9.