In an article in DMNews, Dianna Dilworth reports on JCPenney's pilot program for mobile coupons in the Houston area. Using the coupons presented on their mobile phones, consumers earn discounts on purchases. For its program, JCPenney is using San Jose-based Cellfire to manage the mobile coupon efforts. Cellfire claims they are seeing redemption rates of 10% to 20% for mobile coupons - resulting from much better targeting of offers as compared to traditional paper coupons.

Dilworth also reports that Starbucks is using 2D bar code as well with its new Starbucks Card Mobile iPhone application now in pilot. She says that Starbucks is using technology from Codilink to read the 2D bar codes generated by the application on the iPhone.

A new report from Juniper Research "forecasts that the application of NFC as a mobile retail marketing tool via coupons and smart posters will support the growth of NFC mobile payment transaction values from $8bn in 2009 to $30bn within three years." READ MORE

Cellfire has announced the expansion of its nationwide digital grocery coupon program to include Safeway, one of the largest grocery providers in the country. According to the company, its digital grocery coupons are now available via mobile phone or computer and redeemable at more than 1,500 Safeway stores nationwide under the banners of Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Dominick's, Genuardi's and Safeway. READ MORE

Visa has announced that Visa Mobile is now operational on mobile devices powered by Android, the Open Handset Alliance’s open source platform for mobile devices, including the T-Mobile G1 phone. READ MORE

ReadWriteWeb reports on Visa's new Mobile Application for Google's Android-powered mobile handsets. Visa Mobile delivers three services - Alerts, Offers, and Locator - to help find merchants and Visa ATM's. The Visa mobile website says that it is available now for select Chase Visa cardholders. An FAQ is available. READ MORE

Visa has announced plans to make mobile payment-related services "broadly available to United States consumers by the end of the year" - including delivery of Visa mobile applications for the Android platform with initially availability for Chase Visa cardholders. READ MORE

Visa and Nokia have announced plans "to deliver Visa payment and payment-related services – including contactless payments, remote payments, money transfer, alerts and notifications – for Nokia’s next generation handsets beginning with the Nokia 6212 Classic, expected to be available starting October 2008." READ MORE

In a post titled "1000 Miles To Go For The Enterprise And True Customer Relationships", Christopher Carfi blogs from Oracle's OpenWorld conference this week. Scroll down in his post for highlights of a proof-of-concept demo given during the conference showing how an iPhone mobile application could be used by a retailer (Body Shop) to give more power to the customer. The demo includes the consumer reviewing other customer reviews on a product, being presented with an opportunity to redeem loyalty points at purchase, and generating the discount coupon to be applied at POS.

ViVOtech has announced that its NFC mobile payment wallet, Over-the-Air (OTA) payment, coupon delivery and redemption technologies are being used jointly by NETS, SingTel and United Overseas Bank Ltd. (UOB) for an NFC mobile phone payment trial in Singapore. READ MORE

Visa has announced it is launching four new programs to deliver payments and services via mobile devices. Two commercial mobile payments programs, in Brazil and Korea, along with two mobile offers and transaction notification pilots in the United States, add to more than a dozen pilot and commercial programs enabled by the Visa mobile platform around the world. READ MORE

Visa and Chase have announced a consumer pilot to deliver merchant offers directly to the mobile devices of Chase credit and debit cardholders in the Phoenix metropolitan area. According to the two companies, "the offers – from merchant discounts to specials – are tailored to match the personal interests selected by Chase cardholders and will be redeemable at the point of sale or the web site of more than 50 participating merchants." READ MORE

Thanks Again, a merchant-funded reward network, and RocketBux, a mobile advertising company, have announced a partnership to enable Thanks Again registered consumers and participating merchants to interact via mobile messaging. The partnership will allow consumers to enroll in the Thanks Again Rewarding Merchant Program via mobile phone and receive scannable, barcoded coupons triggered by card transaction data. In addition, Thanks Again will be providing their participating merchant and reward partners the ability to communicate to the consumer base via opt-in mobile messaging. READ MORE

Cellfire, a nationwide mobile coupon and discount offer service, has introduced Cellfire 3.0, enabling consumers to "mobilize offers they discover in traditional and interactive media" and other new features. READ MORE

Javelin Strategy and Research has announced a new report titled "Mobile Marketing: Financial Marketing Strategies to Engage the Mobile Consumer" to be available tomorrow. "58 Million US adults received at least one mobile marketing message on their mobile phones in the last year. Mobile marketing provides an opportunity for financial institutions (FIs) to interactively reach on-the-move consumers closer to the purchase decision in a one-to-one communication." READ MORE

JupiterResearch says it has found "a growing segment of consumers totaling 30 percent is interested in receiving coupons on their cell phones, although at one percent, adoption remains low. During the next year, more advertisers are expected to tap this interest using mobile coupons or promotions, although anticipated growth will remain in single digits. In order to be truly successful, however, such mobile tactics must focus on highly relevant offers, deliver value, manage frequency, and give the consumer control."