Apple iTunes U is the outfit responsible for thousands of interactive eTextbooks that are aimed at the educational sphere and learning inclined. The Cupertino-based outfit today has announced that they are expanding their reach into 50 new countries to purchase and download digital textbooks.
Asia, Europe and Latin America are the main recipients of the expanded iTunes U. Apple basically now has the farthest reach out the mainstream ecosystems that offer eTextbooks for purchase. Amazon, Google and many others are fairly US-centric and don’t really focus on the international educational market. Many of the Apple texts are interactive in nature and are often created with Apple’s own authoring tools to incorporate audio, video, maps and interactive elements. Users in these new markets purchase the books with iTunes U and are able to read them with the official iBooks App.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.