Earlier this month Apple again made available its annual 12 Days of Christmas app which began in 2008, except it’s now called 12 Days of Gifts instead. Running as always, from 26 December to 6 January and not available in the United States, the promo has always been geared towards Apple’s customers outside of the United States. The app provides free downloads to content available on the iTunes Store, varying between apps, songs, music videos, movies, or TV episodes. Unfortunately there seems to be a glitch, at least for those in Indonesia.
The first free download from the holiday promotion was a Maroon 5 EP containing one remix each for Moves Like Jagger and One More Night as well as a short behind the scene video for Moves Like Jagger. Those looking forward to download the set on Wednesday using the Indonesian iTunes Store however weren’t able to download it for free.
The app’s description on the App Store noted that the device’s region setting needs to be set to match the store. In other words, for those using the Indonesian App Store, their iOS devices need to be set to Indonesian as well from Settings > General > International > Region. However, regardless of the region setting on their devices, iTunes Store Indonesia kept listing the Maroon 5 EP at Rp 19,000, preventing hopeful customers from getting their first gift for free.
In the meantime, iTunes customers using the Australian, UK, and European iTunes Stores, perhaps others as well, but we didn’t get to check, were able to download the EP for free.
The promotion has entered its second day now and the free gift has changed to Score! Classic Goals, a football game that lets you recreate some classic goals from history, which normally costs $0.99 or Rp 9,500. Reports came in saying that those who couldn’t download the Maroon 5 EP for free have no problems downloading the free football app.
Most people who couldn’t download the EP thought that the promo was only meant for UK customers as that’s where most of the reports about the 12 day promo came from, and many felt cheated that the app was available in Indonesia without the actual promo, but rest assured that it is an International promotion, otherwise those using the Australian iTunes Store wouldn’t have been able to participate.
Of course, this has left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth of Indonesian iTunes customers and taint their experience in using the newly opened iTunes Store Indonesia but we’re willing to put it down to a glitch in the system in the store’s first month of operation in the country.
Maybe somebody at iTunes forgot to flick the switch for Indonesia. Hopefully no such glitch will occur for the rest of the duration of the promo or Apple and iTunes will face a backlash from its newest customers.
It’d be nice if Apple would extend the promo for another day for the Indonesian iTunes Store as a gesture of good faith though, to replace the missing day.
[hat tip to @fauzanalfi]