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GetJar Gold program offers premium Android apps for free

September 8, 2011 — 10:12am ET | By Jason Ankeny

GetJar Gold will offer free versions of Android applications priced as high as $10 on rival storefronts including Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Market and Amazon's Appstore for Android. Unlike Amazon's Free App of the Day promotion, which offers a different free app every 24 hours, all GetJar Gold apps will be available for download at any time. GetJar adds it will add new Gold apps every day from across categories including games, entertainment and productivity--current titles include Age of Zombies, TuneIn Radio Pro, Paper Glider and Splashtop Remote Desktop.

All titles across the GetJar platform are free--the company pays developers on a per-install basis, with GetJar itself generating revenue by offering sponsored listings. GetJar anticipates the Gold program will generate a dramatic increase in both app installations and customer traffic, stating that free applications are downloaded between 10 and 20 times more often than paid apps.

Roughly a year ago, GetJar unveiled GetJar+, a similar pilot program offering consumers premium content for free. The initiative, which launched in partnership with gaming firm Glu Mobile, nevertheless limited the availability of free titles to two weeks.

GetJar now touts roughly 150,000 applications across the Android, BlackBerry, Java and Symbian platforms, with support for more than 2,500 devices. In addition, GetJar developer registrations are closing in on 350,000. In late July, GetJar surpassed the 2 billion application download milestone, a number the company said tops all other cross-platform app stores. Leading the charge: Facebook, which now exceeds 100 million GetJar user downloads.

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