As outgoing marketing director Patrick Mork suggested when we last spoke to him, free app store GetJar has just announced a premium channel for Android games and apps.

Called GetJar Gold, it's a means by which Android content, which is only available for a fee on other app stores, can be given away from free to GetJar consumers - without any registration - while developers gain revenue for each download.

This works as GetJar will pay the developers directly, hopefully through the increased advertising revenue that can be generated by the expected large download volumes such high quality content will attract.

The games themselves will be the full 'paid' versions, without in-app advertising.

In this way, GetJar Gold formalises and extends the current situation whereby GetJar has been making deals with companies such as Glu Mobile, Rovio and ZeptoLabs to release their Android games, free and/or exclusively for a period.

The initiative also works as part of GetJar's wider expansion plans so in the short term will likely be funded by its VC warchest. It raised $25 million in February.

Giving away gold

The first content to be made available is Halfbrick's Age of Zombies (currently priced at $3.30/£1.94 on the Android Market) and Neon Play's Paper Glider plus apps TuneIn Radio Pro, Solo and Splashtop Remote Desktop.

New content will be added daily, and with 30 million active monthly users, GetJar reckons it's going to give away millions of dollars worth of apps.

"We are able to develop programs like GetJar Gold because of our open and free business model," said Ilja Laurs, GetJar's CEO.

He also highlighted that the channel would only be available for Android content.

"We regret that at this time we cannot extend our program to iPhone users, as Apple runs a closed ecosystem that does not allow for competing app distributors like GetJar," he explained

"Unfortunately, iPhone users will have to continue paying for the very same apps that their Android counterparts enjoy for free."

[source: GetJar]