Will it cannibalise operator downloads?
GetJar has announced a partnership with Glu Mobile to give away a number of the publisher's premium games.
Titles including Brain Genius 2, Stranded: Mysteries of Time, Build-a-lot, and Race Driver Grid will be made available for free download on GetJar, in their Android, BlackBerry and Java versions.
What's more, they will have no advertising or registration requirements during the two-week period in which they're being given away.
It's a pilot for a new initiative from GetJar, which the company explains thus:
"GetJar doesn’t need to rely on the revenue from the sale of apps – instead it relies on the sponsored app placements on its site, which allows it to then buy premium content from publishers and distribute this content to consumers for free."
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However, you may have noticed that the games listed above aren't NEW Glu games - they are older titles. Glu's European boss Olivier Bernard describes the partnership in terms of "extending the life cycle of our own products".
That minimises the risk of cannibalising sales on operator portals, although it will be interesting to see what the operators make of the scheme nonetheless.
"This revolutionary new business model will fundamentally change the app industry economics and give consumers access to many more apps at a lower cost or in GetJar’s case – free," says GetJar CEO Ilja Laurs.
