AFAIK this is just speculation. Some apps are currently being given away for free when they are usually sold at a price. Their has been no announcement from Apple of the companies so it's been speculated they are free in celebration of the App Store's 5th anniversary. If Apple was involved in this they would most likely feature it on the store. As of now that hasn't happened so I doubt Apple is involved.

Edit: If Apple was involved they would probably make some of their own apps free.

Heading over to the App Store will show a special section where they specifically say they are giving the apps away for free because of the anniversary.

Yep.

>To celebrate, we're giving everyone five landmark games and five groundbreaking apps for a limited time.

I always download all of these apps when they are free. Even if I immediately delete the app after downloading, it will always be free for me to re-download with the same Apple ID.

So is this Apple making them free and so paying the developers the missed revenue or is it the developers making them free of their own accord/at Apple's urging?

I suspect the developers are taking the hit in the name of free publicity. I know that when Marco Arment allowed Apple and Starbucks to give away Instapaper, he didn't receive any compensation.

When I saw this link, I expected that Apple was making their apps (e.g. Pages, Keynote, Numbers) free ahead of the anniversary of their App Store. Apparently, that's not the case.

Thanks and yes, that's what I thought - was looking forward to grabbing a free copy of numbers for iPhone - ohwell

I've heard from other ios developers that the added exposure tends to cause huge effects later on in sales though. So it might not be so bad for them?

From hearing about the free deals though it doesn't sound like it ends up a losing proposition. Can anyone thats done one of these free/featured apps on the store validate? I'm super curious now.

I've done free deals in the past, and sometimes it works out nicely. Getting lots of downloads tends to move you up in the charts and search results, some of which lasts when it moves back to paid.

There are also obvious benefits to having more users such as more word of mouth, more (hopefully good) reviews, etc.

Contrary to the headline, Apple is not making them free. TUAW corrected their story already.

List with even more apps: http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1humo9/ios_apps_and_g....

Shameless plug. I made a few of my apps free for the anniversary as well.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/run-tracker-gps-fitness-trac...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedometer+/id468447112?ls=...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/debt-snowball+/id516229756?l...

The sppedometer+ app has a weird logo, it seems to show a weigh scale, like in the bathroom, which is not only skeuomorphic, but misleadingly skeuomorphic?

definitely not intended to be scale, but rather old analog speedometer.

I love Day One and had already bought it. But I wish it was the Mac version that was free. The price is rather steep.

Apple did nothing--the app owners did. Why is this still on the front page?

I think it's still unclear. The fact that none of these apps updated their description to say they were free is odd and unusual.

I believe you can no longer update an app's description without also updating the app itself.

Just the keywords and screenshots. Description can be changed without new submission.

Huh, don't know how I got the impression that description was included. Thanks.

Literally bought Infinity Blade II 2 days ago for $6.99. Kind of annoying.

Truth be told, it's worth that much. One of the best games on a tablet ever. Not just visually, but the entire experience - Gameplay, Character progression, Replayability, etc.

You gave them what you agreed it was worth to you.