What’s the easiest way to make people pay attention to you? Give away free stuff! Android Market alternative GetJar is the latest to use this tactic, which was previously used by Amazon to launch its own marketplace.

Rather than merely copying the competition, GetJar has raised the stakes by offering not one free premium app but fifty, all of which are available together in the “GetJar Gold” section of the store. The apps are entirely free, contain no ads, and can be obtained through the GetJar app available on the official Android Market.

The collection of apps is a bit random, but includes popular choices such as Advanced Task Manager Pro (usually $0.99) and Solo (usually $3.99). I picked up the Top Gear Cool Wall, though to be honest, the app was barely worth the time it took to download.

You may be wondering how all these apps can be made available for free. The answer is in GetJar’s unique business model. The company doesn’t make money from ads, but rather off “app discovery” which is a fancy way of saying that a fee is paid to GetJar whenever someone installs an app through their market.

The free Gold apps are exempt from this, and in fact have been paid an undisclosed amount by GetJar. However, other developers must bid to have themselves included on the list alongside the free apps. These sponsored results will show up in blue.

This means that these apps will be available indefinitely, so don’t worry about grabbing them before the time is up!

Source: Connected Planet