Developers should now more easily be able to offer promotional copies of apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, reports say. Apple has enabled a system which, after an app has been approved for sale, allows developers to send free download codes to as many as 50 individuals. The codes can be redeemed within any current version of iTunes, though at present, downloaders must reside within the US.

To prevent a company from quickly running out of codes, each new version of an app is said to reset the limit.

Developers previously wanting to give away paid apps were often forced to provide gift cards, which the recipients would use to buy the apps themselves; this would potentially cost a developer a substantial amount of money. The alternative was ad-hoc distribution using ID codes, but this was thought to be unnecessarily cumbersome.