Apple Introduces Holiday Special, Download Free iTunes Store Gift For 12 Days

Apple featured one of the most unique Black Friday deals when the tech giant offered users complementary gift cards instead of reduced prices. Now fans will experience yet another special deal from Apple -- one that strongly encourages readers to update to iOS 7.

The company is offering a special for the 12 days after Christmas where users will be able to receive a free "gift" -- such as an app or book -- as long as he or she has the newest iOS 7 Operating System.

In order to take part in the special deals, simply download the free 12 Days of Gifts app on the iOS operating system and then you can check for the deals that will last between Dec. 26 and Jan 6. The company detailed the special on the Apple website.

"From December 26 to January 6, you can download a gift each day-songs, apps, books, movies, and more-with the 12 Days of Gifts app. Each day's gift will only be available for 24 hours, so download the free app to make sure you don't miss out. Note: Not all content is available in all countries."

The deal is new to the American market but it has been introduced in foreign countries in previous years.

There are a number of benefits for Apple in this deal. On top of the already-mentioned move to encourage people to adapt to the new iOS 7 operating system, Apple is also able to get people onto the store's website. This could work as an attention-grab as Apple looks to profit off of other things people buy when they go to the website for the deal. Furthermore, people who enjoy the apps can encourage others to purchase them after the sale is over and Apple would profit from the original price instead of the discounted option.

Apple: iOS 7 now on 74 percent of iOS devices

A new report posted by Apple itself on its iOS developer portal says that, less than three months after its debut, iOS 7 is now on 74 percent of all the company's mobile devices -- an astonishing adoption rate unrivalled in the industry. Users still on iOS 6 make up about 22 percent of the base, meaning 96 percent of iOS users are running OS versions no more than a year old. By comparison, only around half of Android users are on a 4.x version (first released in mid-2012), with only 1.1 percent on the latest iteration.

The difference is crucially important to both app developers and customers: for the latter, being able to run the latest operating system version means more features and better security, increasing the value and safety of the device. For developers, not having to maintain multiple versions that run on a wide variety of hardware makes both development and support much easier -- part of the reason why iOS developers make an average of five times the revenue of Android-only app makers.

Apple's iOS 7 runs on hardware that is up to five years old, though some features are not supported on older hardware. For example, voice assistant Siri is not compatible with the only-recently-discontinued iPhone 4, though it does work with 2011's iPhone 4S. Figures from market analyst MixPanel actually report an even higher penetration than Apple itself, with the company saying that nearly 80 percent of its monitored users are on iOS 7, with 17 percent on iOS 6 and just three percent using anything older than that.