Apple to discontinue iTunes U after 2021 | Hacker News Reader

Apple to discontinue iTunes U after 2021

techcrunch.com

45 pointsnomoreplease22 comments

Not surprising, given how iTunes U never found a critical mass and quite frankly stagnated.

It's a shame, since education tech is very bad and could really use a wake-up call. I thought Apple entering the space might increase competition and lead to new innovation, but obviously that didn't happen.

iTunesU predates things like Coursera. I’d say it took someone like Apple to convince major universities that making their lectures available was worthwhile or else people like Coursera never would have gotten off the ground. It’s a very different market now and iTunesU definitely stagnated but in 2007 it was pretty cool.

iTunes U was totally cool in 2007, and remained cool into the early 2010s with some improvements. My just wish it had remained cool until today!

To be honest, I think iTunes U was negative incentive for universities to put content online, since it was basically a failure. It took Coursera (and MITx, etc.) to show the value in MOOCs, and that people would pay for it. I'm not sure the line between iTunes U and Coursera is necessarily a straight one.

It was a wake-up call when it started. It's since been replaced by plenty of better alternatives. There's more online learning content now than ever before, across more formats and platforms.

Its easier and probably more profitable for Apple to just sit back, let someone else do all the hard work, and just take 30%.

This is the correct take, IMO. Wise.

I didn't know that iTunes U was still a thing...

This was really good for lecture videos back in the day when YouTube quality was too low for it. I hope these courses are made available elsewhere.

Shame, I got a lot of value from it in the first few years after it’s launch. At the time that sort of content wasn’t really available elsewhere.

> Apple says that all current content on iTunes U will stay up “through the 2020-2021 educational year" […]

That's ending any day, no?

Title should have a (2020)

I miss iTunes U. :(

What iTunes U. can be is a listicle space for like minded people to fuse what they know and bring along the audience with them. Nasa does an awesome job at public outreach when a major mission program is going through a critical path, such as, Perseverence and New Horizons. Experts explain what is going on in reaction to questions fielded by the public. The ace Apple has up its sleeve is a level of trust freemium platforms don't have. Would people pay $7 per week for 7 perfect listicle items for knowing what is going on at the cutting edge in areas of their interest? That's the price of two takeout coffees.

While it has never been a serious threat to other digital education platforms, it's a silent victory.

One part of the wall garden chipped away for others to compete without the user getting locked in.

EDIT:

I am clearly talking about 'iTunes U' NOT 'iTunes' as the walled garden.

As of 2017, iTunes U is not 'cross-platform' and became a walled garden. [0]

[0] https://9to5mac.com/2017/08/20/itunes-u-move-podcasts

iTunes was never the walled garden: it’s cross platform.

Just to be pedantic, it's never been available on Linux, and in my experience, iTunes on Windows has been much worse than Mac for about a decade.

It is Mac and Windows only, it doesn’t have Linux or Android version.

Compare to Spotify, which is cross-platform: iOS, MacOS, Win, Linux, Android and probably others.

You can use Tunesviewer to access it on Android. Linux too I think

https://www.umass.edu/it/support/general/access-itunes-u-a-m...

iTunes was never the walled garden

Don't let the truth get in the way of collective axe grinding.

It seems like many people on HN are like bots that see "Apple" in a headline and auto-post responses with the keywords "walled garden," "right to repair," "monopoly," "30% cut," and "Apple tax" no matter what the discussion is actually about.

Some day I hope to post an article about new innovation in the field harvesting of Macintosh apples and see all the complaints that have nothing at all to do with farming.

Thinking is optional. What's important is to keep throwing out those talking point cliches like a politician at a debate gone wrong.

The auto-response syndrome seems to be more with those that argue about "iTunes U" with responses about iTunes in this case?

Ah yes, the loss of a free source of educational material is clearly a victory for everyone.

Good. We don't need a single company with their hands in so many pies. Especially not one that is attempting to ensnare the entire economy under their "all computing and all payments" protection racket.

We don't need students caught in Apple's all-consuming net.

Apple needs to face common carrier / antitrust regulations. They can't put all Americans behind iStore, iPayments, iNoCustomerRelationshipForU and tax every company in existence.

Apple's end game is for everyone on this earth to pay them transactionally for everything they do. Use the toilet? Pay Apple.

They're not a government. Wake the fuck up, DOJ.

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