Consumers armed with smartphones and savvy last weekend likely landed bargains that non-mobile users missed. Retailers now are serving two distinct in-store constituencies.

Increasingly we have access to apps that address the very precise needs of a given moment. The question is whether a person would use an app to find out something, or would they have to know what they wanted to find first?

Serving the right message at the right time and place is a nice mantra, but very few marketers really leverage the precision now possible to do precisely that.

Mobile tools have turned apartment hunting into a real-time, proximity-based sport that favors the well-equipped hunter. But luck still plays a role.