GetJar, an independent mobile app store, is rolling out a new service today that is getting high-profile attention from brands like Facebook and Photobucket because it drives users to download their mobile applications to the phone.
The service does this by alerting users to the fact that a mobile application is available for download when they go to the company’s web site from their phone’s browser. For the past six weeks or so, Facebook has been testing the service, which is called “App Download Page” and has see remarkable results. From the GetJar service alone, it has seen an additional one million downloads a week, or about 8.5 million in total during a two-month trial period. Not too shabby, considering that there are roughly 65 million people total, who are actively using Facebook on their phone.
While other companies, like Google (NSDQ: GOOG), have been offering this feature for some time, it’s not original, but presumably most companies don’t have the resources to do it by themselves. The service provides developers with a mobile web page, which can be linked to from any site. The site detects what device a user has, and then offers a link to download the application. If GetJar doesn’t have a version for the user’s specific handset, it provides a free widget that will launch the site from the phone

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