This holiday season Jewelry Television is taking home shopping mobile with the launch of its free applications for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and for Google’s Android devices.

The growing use of smartphone technology and the economic downturn have encouraged cost-conscious consumers to explore alternative retail channels such as mobile to secure bargains.

Office products retailer OfficeMax has introduced the Holiday Party Bingo iPhone application that works alone or in conjunction with the companion Facebook application to engage holiday party-goers.

Advance movie ticketing merchant MovieTickets.com is expanding its mobile offerings with free applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry.

Active outdoor apparel and footwear brand Columbia Sportswear is driving sales among its target consumers on the go via a mobile storefront.

Best Buy has taken third place in the 2010 Mobile Retailer of the Year awards due to its all-round excellence in mobile marketing and commerce, offering a strategy that is worthy of emulation.

Orbitz has launched applications for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android mobile devices that let customers shop and book a selection of air, car rental and hotel options.

Mobile social network MocoSpace is generating revenue from Street Wars, the first mobile browser-based social game on the MocoSpace Game Platform via virtual currency.

Leading up to the busiest shopping season of the year, membership warehouse club Sam’s Club debuted a mobile Web site and smartphone applications to enhance and simplify the experience.

You are happily browsing the Web on your sleek new smartphone when you land on a page that is so ill-suited to mobile viewing – so clunky, so inelegant, so frustratingly inoperable – that it completely destroys the mobile experience.