Amidst all the negative publicity surrounding the Apple iPhone 4, there's good news for one of its offspring. The educational arm of the iTunes store, iTunes U, hit the news with the Open University crossing the 20 million track download mark.

The Open University has had its content made available on iTunes U since June 2008. Two years ago, 1,370 students accessed the OU’s student websites via their mobile devices – in May 2010, this had risen massively to over 11,000 unique student visitors in that month alone.

With the obvious popularity of iTunes, can the proposed iTunes rivals (see related links) make a mark in an already well-established market?

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Martin Bean, Vice-Chancellor of The Open University, said: "I am delighted that the popularity of The Open University on iTunes U continues to go from strength to strength. Our success lies in providing original, custom-built content for iTunes U, linked to current and popular OU courses. Students are able to incorporate tracks into their studies, while informal learners anywhere in the world can tap into these excellent materials for free."

The most popular collections from The Open University on iTunes U have been languages and arts with the most downloaded to date being Beginner’s French.


Via: Open University