U.S. digital course materials supplier CourseSmart announced on Tuesday that it is making its more than 7,000 college "e Textbooks" available on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

With a free application on Apple's online App Store, students in the United States and Canada can buy their textbooks in electronic form at about half the price of print versions. They can also use iPhone or iPod Touch to quickly reference their e-textbooks in the classroom and even browse their notes, the company said.

"We've seen significant demand from student customers for the ability to get required textbook content in electronic form on an iPhone or iPod Touch," Frank Lyman, executive vice president of CourseSmart, said in a statement.

"We see incredible potential for iPhone and iPod Touch applications in education," he added.

With the new free application, students can benefit from the advantages of mobile learning, "leaving their backpack and laptop behind," CourseSmart said in an introduction to its program.

Founded in 2007 and located in San Mateo, California, CourseSmart is the largest digital course materials supplier in the United States and has partnered closely with major U.S. higher-education publishers.

According to CourseSmart, college students on nearly 6,000 campuses in the United States and Canada are using its electronic textbooks.

(www.eduwo.com, Jainlyn&Charlotte)