Top iOS apps go free ahead of App Store’s 5th anniversary

iOS 7 (App Store teaser 004)

As noted by several iDB readers, a handful of high profile iOS games and apps have gone free ahead of what could be a major celebration in honor of the App Store’s fifth anniversary. Apple recently sent out timeline posters to major media outlets signaling the July 10 milestone.

Among the apps spotted thus far, believed to be a part of the promotion, are Chair’s widely popular swipe-to-fight action title Infinity Blade II and Native Instruments’ Traktor DJ for iPad—neither of which has ever been offered for free. You’ll find a full list of the deals after the fold…

Here’s the list of all of the free top apps spotted thus far (via The Verge):

Apple hasn’t made any official announcements yet regarding the offers, and none of the above apps give any kind of explanation on their App Store pages. But given that the App Store’s fifth anniversary is in just a couple of days, it seems quite possible that the two things are related.

The App Store first went live back on July 10, 2008. Prior to that, users who wanted to run third party apps on their iPhones were forced to either use web apps, or jailbreak their handsets. In fact, many believe jailbreaking played a significant role in the App Store’s introduction.

During the WWDC keynote last month, Tim Cook announced that there are now more than 900,000 apps in the App Store—375,000 of which are iPad specific—and that app developers have made over $7 billion. And in May, Apple celebrated the App Store’s 50 billionth download.

We’ll keep you updated as this story develops.