I interviewed Dan Kihanya, Cellfire's Vice President of Consumer Marketing, who said, "Cellfire is an easy and convenient way to get coupons on your phone or PC. Cellfire was the invention of Preston Tollinger, a former NASA engineer, who looked at the marketplace and saw 250 million handsets. He also noticed that couponing was on the decline because it was becoming less convenient to access coupons. Tollinger's idea was to revive couponing by bringing coupons and cell phones together in a way that would make couponing far more convenient for consumers."

Cellfire is a real business targeting the 300 billion coupons in the U.S. As Kihanya said, "Cellfire has partnered with hundreds of merchants and brands since its inception in 2005. Over the past year, Cellfire has worked with dozens of additional merchants such as McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Valvoline, Caribou Coffee (NASDAQ: CBOU), Peet's Coffee (NASDAQ: PEET), and Stage Stores (NYSE: SSI), among others."

And Cellfire formed key partnerships recently -- as he said, "Importantly, in late 2008, Cellfire partnered with Kroger (NYSE: KR) (the largest traditional grocer in the U.S. and third-largest retailer overall) and more than eight leading consumer products companies to launch Cellfire Mobile Grocery Coupons. The program is now available to consumers at more than 2,200 stores nationwide."

This seems like a great idea that should benefit from the popularity of mobile devices and the need for people to stretch their money further in a slowing economy. Have you used Cellfire? What do you think of it?

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College. His eighth book is You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.