Texas University: An iPhone for Every Freshman

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

Apple and education, an historically great market that goes great with Macs. Well now, if Abilene Christian University (ACU) is any precursor, Mobile OS X is about to follow in it's big desktop brother's shoes.

According to Phil Schubert, ACU executive vice president, "an Apple iPhone or iPod touch will become a central part of Abilene Christian University's innovative learning experience this fall when all freshmen are provided one of these converged media devices."

ACU will be providing not only the devices, but cutting-edge webapps "that ensure these tools will become critical to the students' learning experience."

Whether this is a one-off, or the beginning of a trend, and if there's any synergy with Apple's ongoing iTunes University program (where university material is provided free of charge via Apple's iTunes media store) remains to be seen. (But we certainly hope so!)

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p>UPDATE: Not to be outdone, Oklahoma Christian University has seen ACU's free iPhone or iPod Touch, and raised a free MacBook for new students (and faculty), or trade-in for PC toting older students. (Via Engadget)

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.