The holiday shopping season is among us, folks. No, Thanksgiving isn't here quite yet. But great holiday sales can be found at many major retailers. And most stores have brought out the Christmas trees and holiday music already. (Who am I kidding? Those were out before Halloween!)
Many of us have started to do our holiday shopping, or have at least started thinking about what we're going to buy for our loved ones. A new phone or tablet, AR.Drones and other various knickknacks are the typical spoils this year.
Personally, I've been scouring Kickstarter and Amazon for the perfect gifts, and have scored some great, unique gifts to give so far, like a neat little wallet called TGT (pronounced "tight") or SDXC cards and RC helicopters. But this year, there is a new present I plan on giving to some: mobile apps.
For the last two years, I have slammed Google for missing a huge opportunity in typical, day to day business and the especially in the holiday shopping season.
Unlike the ability to purchase iTunes gift cards – which can be used for movies, television shows, music, apps, games or any other content sold in the iTunes store – in virtually any retail store across the nation, there has been no way to gift Android content. Period.
If you wanted to gift an Android an app, the best you could do was to give something like a Visa gift card or cash and hope the recipient uses it for apps. Not everyone is so gung-ho to spend money on the applications and games they want for their mobile device. But I'm willing to bet they will spend someone else's money in an instant and purchase all the apps and games they've been on the fence about for months.
At long last, though, Google introduced Play Store gift cards in late August, which can be found in retail stores such as Walmart, Target, RadioShack or GameStop, and can be used to purchase apps and games, magazines, books, movies, television shows, music or they can be put towards a larger purchase, like a new Nexus (most of which are currently sold out).
That's why I plan on showering my friends and family with gift cards to their digital content store of choice this year. My family members who have iPhones will most likely get an iTunes gift card. And those with an Android device will get a Play Store gift card.
Honestly, I would hope those gifting things would do the same for me. But chances of that are slim. Most of my family doesn't know what Google Play is, or what Android is, for that matter. And linking the two together is more daunting a task than you might believe. So hopes of getting apps in return are slim, but that's not what this season is about, right? It's about giving!
Are you planning on gifting apps this holiday season, folks? Will you be picking up iTunes or Google Play gift cards to give to your loved ones?
