Russell Holliman took a few minutes to talk with Elisabeth Lewin, Publisher of Podcasting News, at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. Holliman discussed his company, Podcast Ready, and their podcast client, MyPodder.

“Our company started [at the first PME] last year,” said Holliman said. “We found our first hardware partner here, and our backer. It led to the formation of Podcast Ready. It was our mission to mainstream podcasting technology — to make it ubiquitous.”

He also touched on the company’s recent Cease and Desist letter from Apple, which objects to the use of the syllable “pod” in their company and product names, especially in relationship to the marketing of portable media players. Apple gave them until October 5 to respond to the complaint.

“We’re kind of stuck at the moment,” noted Holliman. “We have hardware partners out there that are selling our products as part of their MP3 players, and they are printing hundreds of thousands of boxes with PodcastReady on it. It’s not just a matter of calling up and saying ‘I need new business cards.’ There’s a lot of people involved here.”

“We don’t really feel that ‘pod’ as it pertains to our trademark, infringes on anybody’s,” adds Holliman.

Podcast Ready’s banner product, MyPodder, “is a software technology that can be added to most MP3 players (iPod compatible, too). It that turns the device into its own podcast receiver,” explains Holliman. “We’ve been supplying software to device manufacturers, who put it directly into the players.”

We also asked Holliman about his thoughts about the Expo. “All around, it was just a great show, ” said Holliman, “To be able to come back after a year and see how everyone’s grown. The energy was up, it was an all around fun experience, a great experience. Fun to see Leo Laporte still here, still supporting podcasting. It’s all full speed ahead.”

We’ve published the unedited interview below. In it, Holliman also talks about:

• the product development timeline (only a few months – very fast)
• taking on hardware/manufacturing partners
• In the coming months, developing products for specific interests in the cell phone industry: “Cell phone companies are interested in podcasting — and the media [are] interested in podcasting as a delivery method.”