According to Ctia.org, an international nonprofit trade association for the mobile telecommunications industry, as of December 2012 there were 326 million cell phone subscribers in the United States. They also go on to report that in 2013 the number of active U.S. cell phone subscribers exceeded the entire population.

The majority of cell phones in use today are smart phones, and as the Smartphone market continues to skyrocket, so has the desire for consumers to find more useful tasks for their pricey gadgets than just talking, surfing the Internet and receiving eMail.

Today’s shopper can command their Smartphone to do everything from hunting down a coupon for a pair of slacks to scanning a price code to get the best deal on the newest electronic toys. People carry their cell phones around all the time, and they’re beginning to want to harness the power it represents to get themselves great deals whenever they shop.

There are dozens of shopping apps available for every major brand of cell phones including the iPhone and Blackberry that are either free or cost as little as $1.99 each. These little apps give shoppers the ability to find coupons and other special deals using their phones no matter where they are. In addition, they can comparison shop with ease and even scan barcodes using the built-in camera that comes with every Smartphone.

For example, the coupon website get yowza  shows you all the discounts and coupons that are available in your local area. It has over 15,000 participating national retailers and it runs on your iPhone or iPod Touch, Palm Pre, Android, and Blackberry platforms.

You can also register for free to get a peek at the CellFire.com coupon database. All you have to do is browse through their offerings and pick the coupons that are most useful to you. You can even add grocery store coupons directly to your store card and download non-store coupons straight to your cell phone.

For iPhone and iPod Touch users you can try a free app called Coupon Sherpa. After launching the application you’ll be presented with a list of retailers like OfficeMax, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Yankee Candle, and Kmart, who are offering free coupons. You just have to select the store coupons you want and downloaded them to your phone. When you go shopping, just show the cashier the image of the coupon on your screen to redeem it.

Retailers are beginning to embrace mobile coupons, especially those who sell perishable items that must be sold quickly to avoid losing inventory plus there are many websites like Couponwind that offers free coupon codes for mobile and Pc users. Sponsoring very short sales that last anywhere from one hour to one day helps retailers improve their bottom line and significantly reduce spoilage.