Apple unveils iTunes U for iPad | Hacker News Reader

Apple unveils iTunes U for iPad

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This announcement in particular stood out as meaningful to me, because it seems with the iTunes U app, Apple is taking on Blackboard.

There are few products that, as a student, more directly inhibit education than Blackboard. Ripe for disruption? More like rotting on the ground.

The reason Blackboard doesn't have competition is due to the patents they hold. They have made a commitment not to sue free, open source projects, but as soon as you start charging money they are ready to protect their IP rights.

If they can't sue you, then they just buy you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANGEL_Learning

That's standard practice in education. It's very hard to sell new products in that market, and customers rarely switch products regardless of how badly they're treated. Acquisitions are the only way to grow quickly. Every large company serving the education market is a patchwork of milch cows acquired over the years and squeezed until dry.

That's something I suspect Apple doesn't have to worry about.

We can only hope. My university use(d|s) a competitor (sorry, name escapes me, though I supported it for a year or two) that was also crap. It's terrifying just how horrible these systems are.

Was it Moodle by chance? That's the only competitor to Blackboard I've ever seen.

The university I attend recently switched to using Desire2Learn, a competitor which for many years was fighting a legal battle with Blackboard. I haven't used the software extensively yet, but my first impressions are that it's considerably better than the embarrassingly poor system employed before.

D2L: That was the one, thanks :) It did a lot, but we also had to do an enormous amount by hand because it was simply impossible to automate <x>. And rather mind-numbing pain whenever someone got married, and their name and/or email address changed.

http://coursekit.com/ has been advertised a bunch at my school lately, I haven't used it, but their design and implementation seems interesting

I don't think they are really taking on Blackboard. They purchased PowerSchool in 2001, but then sold it in 2006. I think that shows they have no interest in this space, even though if they could sell a system that integrates the iTunes U app into the SIS.

I think Apple has the potential to change the way we handle information in both schools and hospitals (and of course private practices). Both of these are usually still using outdated Hardware/Software from ~2000 so they will have to be replaced in the near future.

I just don't know if it's good for a school to buy into a closed environment, like the one Apple provides.

Don't most schools already buy into Microsoft's closed environment?

Does Microsoft charge you a fee to develop and sell an app? No. But once you're locked into the iApps, iBooks, iTunes U, iUniverse - Apple gets its 30% off the top. And no alternatives are allowed.

Uh, yes, Microsoft DOES charge you a fee...it's called "paying out the ass for your tools".

What did Visual Studio Enterprise cost last time I looked for a small company (like a start up)? $1600 a pop. More than what's needed for a Mac Mini, an iPod Touch, and a Apple Developer License/Cert.

The same tools (XCode) cost $5.

(And you'd still have to pay for your hardware/OS on top of that $1600). And that's not counting MSDN fees, either.

Make no mistake: Microsoft milks its marketshare of developers just as much as anyone else. It's just a different way of pricing.

Mircosoft is also working towards launching it's own walled garden with a 70/30 split, from what I hear, due in late 2012. So then, they'll be a double stab

"Does Microsoft charge you a fee to develop and sell an app?"

If you want to sell your mobile app in Microsoft's Marketplace, then yes. They charge the same as Apple does in the iOS App Store.

If you want to sell your desktop app in Microsoft's Marketplace, then yes. They'll charge the same as Apple does in the Mac App Store.

If you want to sell a desktop app outside of Microsoft's Marketplace, then no, that's free. Just like it is on the Mac.

What's great about Apple entering the space is it inspires competitors. I'd love to see a bunch of businesses pop up around this.

Well, there's no other alternative at the moment. The only thing students are bound by is the curriculum and recommended texts. I for one, hope Amazon get onto it too. It's just a shame it's always Apple innovating and the rest left catching up. How and why did Amazon not see this as an opportunity years ago? They must sell thousands of text books each year and ship them everywhere.

Like Kodak, Amazon was making too much money off the analog format to seriously consider a move that would kill the current cash cow. Dabble in the digital alternative, yes, but ready for massive game changes from near-unexpected competition and overnight adoption by customers, not so much.

So, who else just downloaded more courses than they can possibly manage to watch?

Wasn't this always there?

The video lectures were there, and the UI was the same as watching a podcast. Abstracting iTunes U into its own app allowed Apple to add course materials without it cluttering up the "Videos" app.

Now we just need iTunes U for Linux... Or better yet, the universities using it should provide the lectures in some open format as well.

So write it.

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