iTunes U surpasses one billion downloads

Number of downloads from iTunes U have more than tripled in less than three years

This has been a February to remember for iTunes. In the same month that Apple sold it's 25 billionth song on the iTunes store, the company has now announced yet another impressive milestone for one of its iTunes divisions.

Apple revealed Thursday that it has now surprassed one billion downloads from iTunes U, the learning oriented section of the iTunes store.

The service features content from schools, libraries, museums and organizations in order to help educators create courses including lectures, assignments, books, and quizzes. It used by more than 1,200 universities, colleges, and K-12 schools and districts to host over 2,500 public and thousands of private courses. 

“It’s inspiring to see what educators and students of all types are doing with iTunes U,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said in a statement. “With the incredible content offered on iTunes U, students can learn like never before―there are now iTunes U courses with more than 250,000 students enrolled in them, which is a phenomenal shift in the way we teach and learn.”

Many of the downloads have come from leading universities, Apple noted, including Duke, Yale Cambridge, MIT and Oxford. Stanford and the The Open University announted for 60 million downloads each.

The service is used globally, with 30 countries, including Brazil, South Korea, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, able to create courses, and 155 countries around the world able to access them. In all, more than 60% of iTunes U app downloads came from countries besides the United States.

Apple announced the launch of iTunes U in May 2007. By August 2010, it had seen 300 million downloads, a number that it has now more than tripled in less than three years. 

Recent Apple milestones

Earlier this month, Apple revealed that it had sold its 25 billionth song on the iTunes store, a number which becomes even more impressive when you realize that, even though the Store has been around for nearly a decade, two thirds of the songs sold have come in the past three and half years. 

In January, Apple made the announcement that it had topped 40 billion downloads in the App Store, with nearly 20 billion of them in 2012, and two billion of them in December alone. That is compared to Google Play, which celebrated reaching 25 billion downloaded apps in September.

Apple's stock is currently up 0.21%, 93 cents, to $445.50 a share.

(Image source: https://www.apple.com)