CBL & Associates Properties has picked its partner for mobile applications in its shopping centers: mallMerlin.

The app isn’t available until later this year, so we can’t give you a hands-on review yet. But it’s got a few interesting features that might whet your mobile appetite. Of course, mallMerlin will have all the usual suspects on board: in-mall navigation, customized deal delivery, and contact information. You’d be hard-pressed to find a retail app that lacks those basics these days, so we hope you’re keeping them in mind when shopping for your own mobile solution.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. mallMerlin will also give retailers the opportunity to display images of their storefront (vital when trying to navigate a new mall, especially when dealing with spotty GPS), to feature products with high-def images, descriptions and pricing, and to offer high-def video. It also lets retailers enhance and customize their discounts and offers before the customers reach the point of sale if they don’t want to be locked in to a one-size-fits-all discount. And it offers co-promotions, so retailers in a shopping center can work together to support each other’s marketing efforts, or to work with the mall’s marketing plans. Finally, it gives retailers a content management system and analytic so promotions can be updated and tracked with ease.

This could raise the bar for retail apps, if it turns out as good as it sounds.

Past in the Future, a cc licensed flickr photo shared by motionblur

News reached us this week that Simon Property Group has struck up a deal with iPhone development company shopkick. If that name sounds familiar, it might be because they’re responsibility for CauseWorld, an app we covered a while back. Soon, it might just be a household name.

Their upcoming app has a lot of features that you’d find in location-based retail apps like Foursquare. As a customer, you’ll pull out your iPhone (and likely your Blackberry or Android phone, in the near future) and “check in” at your current location. The retail location might give you access to a special discount or promotion for checking in. But then shopkick goes further. You’ll be rewarded with “kickbucks,” which you can save up for special rewards. You’ll also earn those kickbucks just for walking in to shopkick partner retailers.

That’s where the big difference lies. Shopkick won’t be a standalone app – rather, it relies on retailers adopting special beacons that recognize when shopkick users are in the store. So no more will you (or your retailers) need to worry that rewards are being tossed at shoppers who just pass by, or check in to every store from the local food court. Shopkick will reward shoppers who are already engaged, and it will keep them coming back by being more rewarding than Foursquare has ever thought to be.

Whether it will work remains to be seen. It’s an ambitious plan, and it needs retailers to get on board with the hardware if it’s going to reach its full potential. The jury is still out on whether there is enough use of this sort of app to make it worthwhile. But working with Simon is certainly a great start, and with 25 Simon malls launching the program later this month, we should be seeing real world results soon.

Have you put any more thought into your shopping center’s mobile app? We’ve looked at a few different options, from shopping center specific to multi-mall map apps. Here’s another fun one.

Madison Marquette recently put together a great iPhone app for Asbury Park, its high profile retail mixed-use destination along the New Jersey coast. As a mixed-use destination, Asbury Park has its own challenges for app development. Concerts and dining out are as relevant as shop listings, and Madison Marquette did a great job of presenting that.

Positioning Asbury Park as a destination, the developer is using the app to feature the items that might draw in shoppers near and far. The app lists shops, dining spots, nightclubs, concerts and events. News and social media connections are also made. But to get people out to the shore in the first place, the app offers an up-to-date surf and weather report. It’s the perfect app for someone planning a day at the New Jersey coast.

Need someone to do your (not so) dirty work? Here’s a novel way to get local shoppers working for you when you need them.

If you have a need for some in-house market research or demographic surveying, Field Agent might just be the app for you. It’s only available in the US iTunes store for now, but this seems like an app with growth potential. You can sign up with the service, and post a task. Field Agent users in your area can open the app and see the listings in their area, and the payment that’s on offer (payments range between $3 and $8 depending on the task). Agents are ranked for reliability, so you know the person you’re paying will be responding accurately and honestly.

It’s the latest in a series of attempts to crowdsource the mobile market, and it might be a workable one. More Agents are signing up daily, with clients lagging behind, so if you have a quick job that could use the input of the crowd, Field Agent is looking for you. The company is looking to expand the capabilities of the app, so if you have an idea for a task it doesn’t support, let them know.

Want to help shoppers find their way around your mall? Consider checking in to FastMall.

FastMall is an iPhone application that’s focused on getting shoppers where they’re going — fast. Using GPS locations and some nice mapping software, the application can help shoppers find exactly what they’re looking for. Need a bathroom, quickly? Shake the app and it brings up the map location of the nearest toilet. But shoppers can also find food, find stores, find deals, and find their cars. And if they want to be social, they can check in at the shops they’re visiting on FastMall, Facebook or Twitter.

Offering deals is a nice selling point for retailers at your shopping center. Much like competitor Point Inside, who we’ve covered in the past, retailers can list time limited sales and offers in the app. Click on the deal, get a coupon. A number of retailers use the application to push newsletter signups, and you could too. You can find out more at the FastMall website.