Independent app store GetJar has announced a strategic alliance with Indian telco Reliance Communications. The move will see GetJar offering Reliance’s 100 million+ subscribers its extensive catalogue of over 65,000 free mobile applications through Reliance’s VAS (Value Added Services) platform, R-World.
Reliance Communications will offer the GetJar Apps Store across GSM and CDMA networks. Customers will have access to applications including games, social networking, sports, entertainment and productivity applications. Popular apps such as Facebook Mobile, Yahoo!, Opera Mini, and Nimbuzz can be downloaded to more that 2,300 handsets across all major platforms. RCOM will offer the service at 50 paise per MB of usage, with the app download and offline usage free. GetJar currently averages over 1 million downloads per day globally. India is currently adding more mobile phone subscribes each month than any other.

Reliance’s application store strategy is directly linked to a move to increase data traffic, increase data plan adoption, and the sale of other services through the use of free applications. Reliance believes the strategy of giving away free apps will help achieve mass mobile data plan adoption and mobile Internet use.

“We wanted to partner with the largest, most experienced, “open” application catalog provider to address virtually any device being used by our customers,” says Anil Pande, Head – VAS at Reliance Communications, “Our partnership with GetJar means that all Reliance Communications customers will instantly have access to thousands of applications, ranging from games, shopping and lifestyle, to sports, entertainment and productivity applications.”