AT&T has suddenly realized the power of mobile commerce, most recently partnering with with Placecast to deliver special offers and discounts to consumers via their mobile phones when they are near a participating store or brand. Today, the telecommunications company is announcing a new service, powered by mobile commerce software platform Digby, which helps retailers design, deploy and manage mobile commerce web sites and rich applications optimized for smartphones.

Digby Mobile Commerce from AT&T helps retailers create mobile websites that display rich product images and live catalogs, expands the ways they can buy from merchants and more. Digby also allows retailer to create native applications, and tap into both its mobile barcode service and the ShopAlerts service to send promotions and new product information to app users when they walk into connected stores. And the platform will give retailers detailed analytics and traffic data from websites and apps.

Digby’s platform allows retailers to develop apps for iOS, BlackBerry and Android devices. Digby has a number of well-known retailer using its offering, including Costco, Toys “R” Us, The Home Depot, Lilly Pulitzer, and 1-800-Flowers.

I’m not sure why a retailer would want to use AT&T’s mobile commerce platform over an independent development platform, but it’s definitely interesting to see the telecommunications company further its mobile commerce strategy.

Crunchbase

• AT&T

Company: AT&T

Website: att.com

IPO: NYSE:T

AT&T is the largest provider of both local and long distance telephone services, and DSL Internet access in the United States and the second largest wireless service provider in the United States.

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