Apple’s Store app now offering app freebies

If you like free stuff—and who doesn’t?!—you may want to take another look at the Apple Store app for iPhone, through which the Cupertino company will treat you to a nice gift.

After a recent update to the Apple Store app, the company now uses it to promote content across its various properties—including, of course, the App Store. Case in point, if you open the app before August 27, you will be able to get a copy of Large Animal Games’s Color Zen, which normally retails for $1, for the cool price of zero instead.

To be fair, at the time of this writing the functionality that makes the free download possible isn’t working for me, or several members of the Macworld staff, but the hiccup is likely temporary and will likely be addressed soon.

This kind of cross-promotion makes great sense for Apple; for starters, it gives users a reason to open up the Apple Store app, which could lead to additional sales—after all, you never know when the sudden urge to buy a new Mac may strike. And besides, it engenders good will with iOS users, who get to enjoy some more free content, and with app developers, who get another opportunity for exposure.

This is only the latest of several free-app promotions that Apple runs. Users can already enjoy weekly freebies from all of the company’s online properties, including apps, books, and music singles.