We’ve all heard about the incredible growth of the App Store, which has seen more than 500 million downloads across over 15,000 applications. Much of the innovation (or at least, money) has come from games and other entertaining apps like Smule’s Ocarina and Pandora Radio. But the iPhone is also poised to make huge strides in a somewhat less glamorous space: study guides.
With gigabytes of storage, dimensions comparable to traditional note cards, and a full color screen, the iPhone is the ultimate study companion. And, unlike many of its smartphone competitors, the iPhone and iPod Touch have huge appeal for the younger crowds that generally flock to study materials.
Unfortunately the current state of the ‘Education‘ section of the App Store leaves something to be desired – many of the top apps are poorly designed, and some of the best-selling applications in both the ‘paid’ and ‘free’ sections have fewer than 100 total reviews. I blame this mostly on a general lack of awareness; something that could easily changed if Apple started marketing the iPhone’s learning applications as heavily as it has its games. Regardless of current demand, some of the large test-prep companies are beginning to realize there’s money to be made here.
In late December, Kaplan teamed with app developer Jirbo to release its first test prep application, SAT Flashcubes. The result: a quirky vocab tutor with spinning cubes that hasn’t fared very well, with a grand total of six reviews. But Kaplan isn’t putting all of its eggs in one basket: today it released its second (and more conventional) application for the NCLEX-RN exam, and have at least eight more in the works. Kaplan is the first mover (which may be key), but don’t be surprised if The Princeton Review, Barrons, and other large publishers have their own apps on the drawing board.
In the meantime, a number of smaller publishers have released their own applications, spanning everything from basic flash cards and SAT vocabulary to memorizing the amino acids (a rite of passage for every pre-med student). Many of these apps seem to work well, but they may be overtaken once the aforementioned “trusted names” start establishing a larger presence.
Test prep and study guides represent a massive market, with many teens and young adults (and their parents) willing to drop serious amounts of money on anything that could conceivably help get higher test scores. Many of these students are so driven that, with a large enough selection, the App Store’s Education section could lead them to buy an iPod Touch or iPhone when they wouldn’t have gotten one otherwise. So maybe Apple should give the games a little less attention for a while, and let everyone know that they’ve got “the smartest iPod ever”.
Using technology as an educational tool…novel idea. Doesn’t surprise me that apple is at the forefront of this though.
Matt
Matt, how do you get Apple being at the forefront of this development from that article? That’s like saying paper manufacturers were driving the porn market in the 70s. If anything the piece admonishes Apple for failing to market education as a desirable use for an Iphone.
Alex: Can’t you detect the sarcasm in Matt’s comment? I’ve been using a WM based PDA to teach my son for a few years now.
I’d rather they be in front of an AppStore that doesn’t operate like the iTunes Music Store. It’s like they copy/pasted the code.
Hit-driven consumption puts a lot of pressure on small developers to price down. Apple takes 30% which leaves little room to market the app externally. I feel that amount is way to high and/or needs to be at least somewhat elastic around distribution costs; our apps are less than 1 mb in size.
And don’t even get me started about their approval process, $$$ wasted. They need a premium approval program, and then ‘everything else’. Cut costs and boost customer confidence about their purchases… lots of animosity if you’re not in the top charts (driven strictly by volume, no relation to price). *See pricing problem above*
Television was supposed to be The Great Teaching Tool, too, remember?
computer!
http://cashcratereview.com
Apple’s got nothing to do with it, Matt. Educational Technology and Communications is a grand old field. Educators and developers are at the forefront. Apple’s just tryin to make a buck as always. They’ll sell anything.
Actually I love that Kaplan Flashcubes app. I find it very useful. It’s just buried in the app store because there are too many apps.
I was gonna comment about that. I think we’re the only 2 people who cares about the Kaplan Flashcubes App!
BestJobsOnline
http://tinyurl.com/7uj5ay
This is exactly what I’ve been thinking about, why hasn’t Apple pushed the idea of educational apps? I look forward to seeing the evolution of this… too bad you cant store files on your iPhone though. That is what stopped be from buying one and going with the G1.
You can store files on the iPhone. I do it using the app Air Sharing. My laptop can see it as a wireless drive. I use Windows Explorer to drop files onto it. Can’t email them using the iPhone yet, but I hope it happens soon.
You should add that the CPA Exam Review has an iPhone application to help candidates study for the Certified Public Accountant exam.
See http://www.rogercpareview.com
I’ve been using dictionnaries, periodic tables, graph apps, scientific calculators & converters + ebooks on my S60 since 5 years…
It just that people never noticed this until the iPhone came by…
Exactly my feeling. Is as if Apple had invented the smartphone.
Many people would agree that flash cards are the ultimate study tool. I sure wouldn’t have been able to pass the MCAT without my trusty pile of flash cards.
Most of you know about what is the best flashcard site on the web: http://www.flas...rdexchange.com/. I found out recently that they released an iPhone app called Mental Case Lite for that iPhone that allows you to study any of the literally millions of flashcards and card sets available on the site on-the-go. The app does have a few stability problems, though.
The crazy thing about a site like that is you could optimize views of the cards for the iPhone and view them in the browser — it doesn’t need to be an app, and if it wasn’t it could be used on other phones.
That only works well if you
1) have constant connectivity and
2) the network & server latency is low for quick response.
Since I travel by train and London’s underground subway system (the Tube) both conditions are frequently not met.
Having said that, website functionality is a very sensible on the way to a portable (eg Java) implementation with device side caching.
I’m the developer of Mental Case and Mental Case Lite. My company develops the iPhone app, and we have a deal with flashcardexchange.com to deliver their content. It’s actually a good deal to buy Mental Case for iPhone, because a download account on flashcardexchange is usually $19; for $5 you can buy Mental Case and download directly to your iPhone with a free flashcardexchange account.
A bit of shameless plugging: Mental Case works quite nicely to download from flashcardexchange.com, but it works even better if you have a Mac. You can sync data with the Mac version of Mental Case over a wifi network. So you can create your own cards on your Mac, and sync them over to study on your iPhone.
Drew
I’m the developer of Mental Case and Mental Case Lite. My company develops the iPhone app, and we have a deal with flashcardexchange.com to deliver their content. It’s actually a good deal to buy Mental Case for iPhone, because a download account on flashcardexchange is usually $19; for $5 you can buy Mental Case and download directly to your iPhone with a free flashcardexchange account.
A bit of shameless plugging: Mental Case works quite nicely to download from flashcardexchange.com, but it works even better if you have a Mac. You can sync data with the Mac version of Mental Case over a wifi network. So you can create your own cards on your Mac, and sync them over to study on your iPhone.
Drew
educational research content is readily available on the internet. who needs an ipone app when you have internet access.
StudentLocator.com – finding pupils
or use something thats infinitely better – google.com
We should mention Mental Case (http://www.maccoremac.com/) here too.
This gets sadder every day..
Since we’re talking about the iPhone, can somebody explain to me why the iPhone SDK doesn’t have this ???
http://code.goo...pp/Service.html
Business applications such as the one we are making need to be run as a service.
This seems ridiculous to me. So your business app which people are going to use the iPhone for MUST run your app in the forground ALL THE TIME ???
I hate this platform.
At the beginning of the app store launch I used to play the games and games only on drew time (while in train, etc. ) that changed as I discovered the educational section and it got populated. These days the app that use the most is one called flags exchange (formerly mental case). I love this app, you can download flashcards for anything you can imagine I hardly play games anymore and study a lot in any free time.
I that really adds tremendous value to my phone as it has become a tool for me rather than just an entertainment device. Apple should promote the educational section to leverage it as a tool as well, that should tilt the scale forbthose in the sidelines still.
Cool! I think this is really a good idea and the education ministry should really take serious consideration of implementing this.
Remember watching the NTT Docomo video on the future of mobility where they mention how technology helps to make life better.
http://www.nttd...usai/index.html
Cant wait to see more of such apps (be it android or iphone) coming out!!!
http://www.phokki.com – Photo to Art
Nice to see techcrunch taking notice of the iPod/iPhone’s huge potential here. I’m the author of iFlipr Flashcards and have been quite pleased with the results so far. Of course the app could use an update, but so far so good… nearly 3 million cards have been created by the users so far and many students have written to thank me for helping them ace their tests.
Love your app. I was looking for a flash card app, and I wound up paying $10 for one that was vastly inferior to yours. Then I bought yours, and now I have my daughters using it regularly (ok, I’m learning the Presidents on it too
Why go to school? Everything is online now.
There’s a wealth of applications for learning in the ‘Reference’ section of App Store too, see http://itunes.a...d=6017&mt=8
I’m the author of the Java API Lookup and Ruby API Lookup apps.
http://itunes.a...342772&mt=8
http://itunes.a...551233&mt=8
Using technology to educate people. Now where have I heard that before. Oh wait, isn’t that the most over-attempted, over-abused application of technology so far!!?
I guess Apple does something unique this time as well…
http://stuckinf...es.blogspot.com
“In the meantime, a number of smaller publishers have released their own applications, spanning everything from basic flash cards and SAT vocabulary to memorizing the amino acids (a rite of passage for every pre-med student).”
It should be said that these apps do not use the phone’s capabilities and are glorified web apps. There’s no reason any one of these apps should be an iPhone specific app.
Check out yoyobrain.com. I’ve had some involvement with this startup (no financial investment – only a little sweat equity) and feel its on the verge of breaking through and beyond other sites. I’m hoping that an iphone app is on their radar screen – it would be a perfect extension of their model.
try again: http://yoyobrain.com
I have been waiting for a Grockit iphone APP – Farb and his team must be working on this…
Hope so – they have a great service and it could have so much more legs on the iPhone and Android.
I play grockit on my iphone. but it’d be really nice to have iphone optimized.
Come on you’re obviously shilling. I’m preparing for the GMAT, so I tried Grockit. IT SUCKS!
It takes 20 minutes to go through each questoin. And the questions are too easy. All the participants are MORONS — I’m supposed to learn from these people? Yeah, maybe if I want to go to East Khazakhstan State Technical School for Imbeciles.
Just buy the Kaplan or Princeton books on ebay. Saveyourself a lot of time and trouble.
You are so obviously shilling. Have you no shame at all?
I’m preparing for the GMAT so I tried Grockit. IT SUCKS!!
It takes 20 minutes to do a single question. The questions are too easy. The other participants are all morons. I’m supposed to learn from them? What if I don’t want to go to East Khazakhstan State Technical College? And did I mention it takes 20 MINUTES PER QUESTION? At that rate it will be five years before I can take the GMAT. What is the point of this “service”?
Save yourself time and trouble and just get a book from Kaplan or Princeton.
@AK & @bsharaz: Thanks for the praise and mention of Grockit.
Without saying anything about Grockit’s iPhone and Android plans, I will suggest that we recognize the potential that both devices have as a platform for learning tools.
@Anand V:
Forgive me for being confused: two people independently comment on their desire for a Grockit iPhone app is somehow considering shilling?
I’d be happy to talk further with you publicly or privately about your experience at Grockit (email me at mike@grockit.com). In the interest of transparency and for the benefit of future passersby, I’ll do my best to be helpful here in the meantime.
I understand the desire to exaggerate when relating frustrating experiences – so that we can more accurately understand what actually turned you off to Grockit, can you describe why you decided to say “20 minutes”, when in fact, the longest you’d spend on any question on Grockit currently, and has only ever been, 4 minutes?
Regarding participants – one of a number of effective learning techniques is to put yourself in the position of having to teach others. Considering your experience, and your assessment of those who you shared your experience with, would you be able to make any suggestions about how we might have been able to help you take advantage of an opportunity to teach?
Finally, are the two nearly identical posts – aside from the author and a few other words, done five minutes apart – relevant to your experience at Grockit?
I’d go for anything that would get young people to learn and help America become a nation of critical thinkers.
Cram was another cool educational app… I downloaded it a few months back.
http://www.simp...ap.com/cram.htm
I think there is a lot of potential for educational games on the iphone. The shorter scope of educational focused games make them a difficult sell on more traditional platforms like the Nintendo DS, but they’re perfect for the $.99 apps that sell in the app store.
Of course, I’m biased, since my company just released an educational math game called Brain Thaw (www.brainthawgame.com), inspired by the classic Apple II game Number Munchers.
Whoops, that link didn’t work: http://www.brainthawgame.com
I would love to see more iPods and iPhones in elementary classrooms. It would make it so much easier for children to learn.
Talk about doing spelling words, Math, Science, and so on……
Unfortunately the price makes it a little bit dificult to do so.
check out my app PopMath, designed for this age group. I tried to make it fun. Check out the youtube video demo.
if the iPhone motivates young minds to become excites about their education,then it is worth every single penny.
Technology and education is a great combination.
best phone by far
rc
trading tennis blog
Hello Michael and to the rest of the great writers here at tech crunch…i am a long time reader.
Today we are soft launching The Daily Bail, a bailout news, opinion & analysis site.
In more detail we are a news aggregation source for all stories related in any way to the institutionally dysfunctional, painfully inept and completely counter-productive taxpayer bailout of failed people, ideas, businesses, pensions, municipalities, states and ultimately, we fear, of our federal government.
The site is not complete but is functional and so we have decided to soft launch now given the strong bailout news flow.
For those interested, click the URL next to my name or go to http://www.thed...squarespace.com
In a few days we will lose the ‘.squarespace’ tag.
Thanks again for allowing us to post and I hope tech crunch readers will take the time to check us out.
dailybail
OMG…could this site take ANY more time to load? 75% of the time to load the page is taken up by ads waiting to load.
Come on Mike!
PopMath was lucky enough to be featured on the app store and was #1 in Education as well, but it generated only a few hundred downloads a day for a few weeks. Maybe with time parents will be more comfortable lending their precious iPhones to their kids. I hope
See NutshellMath.com
This content could easily be made available on the iPhone.
Select your textbook, select a page and problem number, and view a video of a teacher explaining how to do the problem.
I’m glad Apple added an education category to the App Store.
Reminds of what my Dad said when I wanted to buy and Apple: “Apple’s are for artists and kids.”
Maybe now that Apple is more associated with rock stars than education they are happy right where they are and don’t want to go back?
Nice but i have a whole website for iphone check it out http://www.DotA-Utilities.com
I don’t see the point of this article.
You could have study guides on every mobile down to a 3 year old RAZR v1 with java.
I don’t see the point of pick up an iPhone and saying “you could do this with it”
I think this was a poor article. My 2 cents.
should say “picking up an iPhone”
I should check for typos before submitting, sorry.
“to memorizing the amino acids (a rite of passage for every pre-med student)”
I hope not, I’m half way through my medical course and couldn’t tell you more than three amino acids- that stuff isn’t relevant for us as doctors- lab technicians yeah but not so much for us doctors!
I’m writing a report on the use of new technologies in medicine and have included things like the iPhone, it’s a shame however because there really seems to be very little momentum in the education space when it comes to education.
I was thinking – this could be a very good way not only to study, but to supplement the information you can get online by adding locational data.
For example, say your a Job Board, and as you transverse a place you are – you have an app that shows you jobs nearby me – plus some information about it – in an branded application.
Perhaps, you can even have something an element that sets up a standby interview …. say ….. based on an interface the employer has that flashes out when they may have a free minute for phone or in person.
Or it could be a crowdsourcing way to divide labor and pay people for it using Micro payments for work that’s needed – and maybe you find out about it by walking by that location.
Meet my friend, the laptop?
Apple is amazing at marketing themselves in a way that influences consumers to believe they are the most innovative company in the business world. A phone is not going to spark any additional motivation for a college kid.
The iPhone is a ‘neat’ phone but far from being a productive tool for…anything? In terms of pure productivity the phone fails against nearly every other device on the market with any sort of smartphone functionality. This is not a business phone, it’s not capable of being a sufficient replacement to a laptop or even PEN AND PAPER for that matter. The iPhone is a fad; its sleek, its user friendly, its Apple – nothing more. The company is without a doubt the ‘chanel’ of the technology world
I don’t see why we need many specialized applications for learning. A strong note taking system with easy recall can cover 90% of the learning process – and we have Evernote. Not perfect, but a step in the right direction. Not everyone (or every subject) needs quizzes and flashcards.
Someone has to stimulate it’s use for educational purposes through free and excellent software meant for it, or make it really, really awesome.
LOL, all my teenager uses his IPhone for is to text his buddies and use AIM, thats it.
RT
http://www.Privacy-Center.net
It is a shame that the iPhone can do everything on the planet, but cure cancer.
Another great iPhone flashcard app is gFlashPro – http://www.gwhi...ktop/gFlash.php. It supports downloading the millions of flashcards available from http://www.studystack.com.
There’s also the free version, gFlash+.
Interestingly enough, the NCLEX-RN exam application referenced in the article was also done by the same guys as gFlash+ and Pro.
(full disclosure, I was the principle programmer on gFlash+)
Alot of great uses already and plenty more to come in the future. Iphone would be more valuable with a flash viewing application. Iphones extensibility would be even more inviting.
Why not just use a netbook so not only can you have an inexpensive small form factor but you could do other work with it as well if you needed?
the iphone is a great tool is u get the free apps which are available, more and more people i know are using the iphone as a resource tool.
http://myfreeip...co.uk/wordpress is a good site for iphone tools and apps.
Haha, the iPhone is already the ultimate classroom helper. I’m sure a lot of students could look up literally any answer on any test using the 3g. Not to mention texting each other. good post
Math Sticker is one of the great examples of an Educational, but at the same time fun iPhone games. Even those of our children who are not especially the greatest fan of mathematics, could get addicted to this game! It is a brain fittness game that invisibly teaches not only our kids, but us some logic. There is also free version of it. For more info: http://games.cl...om/mathsticker/
Hmm Nice idea i guess. but many people use iPhone for entertainment purpose not for study
There’s also http://www.wordisms.org for GRE prep. It helped me improve my vocab score by about 100 points.
It could be done on any type of phone with the same specs right?.
The educational industry has a huge amount of growth if it’s entered upon in a precise, and accurate manner. I give it 2-3 years before 4-5 companies dominate the whole educational field.
They should have different sub categories in education. Right now preschool apps are mixed in with med school apps.
I have a 3 yr old so I like to look for preschool apps. Some of the apps have questionable educational value. What’s up with teen torture? Sounds fun but is torturing teens really educational.
My 3 yr old loves preschool pals henry& hailey