In February, McDonald’s (MCD) launched an online shop on Alibaba’s Taobao, China’s top online auction site, to promote its Super Value meal. The fast-food giant wasn’t selling burgers. Instead, for two months it sold popular and fashionable products such as mobile phones, digital cameras and MP3 players on its virtual store, along with the more-predictable gift vouchers. Many gifts were sold at promotional, discounted prices.

The McDonald’s Super Value online store was the chain’s first online shop, according to Phyllis Cheung, chief marketing officer of McDonald’s China. “It’s a strategic media tactic to target the right audience,” she said–specifically, urban adults in their 20s.

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Most Americans now have mobile phones, and a Nielsen Mobile report last year found that nearly one in five of us have cut the cord, abandoning our landline service entirely. Danny Kessler of Tempe, Arizona, is one of those people, except he has gone the next step: He recently gave up his cell-phone contract too. Kessler’s no hermit: He’s a 27-year-old personal-safety instructor who has to be in touch with his clients.

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The strategies of companies ranging from Google (GOOG) to Microsoft (MSFT) and from Apple (AAPL) to Yahoo (YHOO) suggest they believe the future of the internet lies in mobile phones – but many in the industry believe the mobile web is still a long way from realising its potential.

EBay’s (EBAY) senior director of platforms and mobile Max Mancini told the BBC: “The first hype cycle on mobile failed because people wanted to recreate the desktop on the phone.

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Nokia (NOK) shares are headed sharply higher this morning after the company indicated the worst may be over for the mobile phone business.

For the first quarter, the company posted revenue of 9.276 billion euros, down 26.7 percent year over year, and 26.8 percent sequentially. Revenues from the device business were down 33.4 percent year over year, and 24.2 percent from Q4. The Nokia Siemens equipment business was down 12.1 percent versus a year ago, and 31.1 percent sequentially.

Profits in the quarter on a non-IFRS basis (the equivalent of non-GAAP) were 10 euro cents per share, versus 39 cents a year ago.

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Five major U.K. carriers are banding together to pool customer data so that it can be put into a giant database and then be used to sell advertising, The Register reports today. How long do you think it will take before this “database” idea lands on American shores? First they charge you hundreds of dollars for calls, then they sell you for pennies.

This is no different than, say, Phorm, NebuAd or any of the other tricks being cooked up by service providers in a desperate attempt to recreate Google’s business model. In the process, they are playing loose and fast with people’s privacy. Jeez, no wonder people hate their phone companies.

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The footage is shaky and low quality, with chaotic shouts and protests from onlookers at a subway station in San Francisco’s East Bay. But it clearly shows three policeman roughly handling a group of young men–including one who is pinned to the ground by two officers and shot in the back.

This shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant–who died later in hospital–has outraged many in California and triggered riots in Oakland in a case that many feel echoes the brutal beating of Rodney King by LA police in 1991.

Transport police were called to the Fruitvale train station in the early hours of New Year’s Day after reports of a fight. Grant was one of a small group of men taken off the train and restrained, at which point several passengers began to film, using mobile phones and cameras.

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Yes, this may be the worst recession America has seen since World War II. But the people who are bringing us the Consumer Electronics Show would like to point out that sales of tech products are actually faring pretty well when compared to what happened during previous recessions.

The evidence suggest that people’s views on devices such as televisions, notebook computers and mobile phones are changing, says Shawn DuBravac, economist for the Consumer Electronics Association. Through November of 2008, 17.22 percent of total durable good purchases were tech goods, the highest share in 50 years, he says.

“While these are typically discretionary purchases, consumers are treating them like nondiscretionary purchases,” says Mr. DuBravac.

That doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t making cutbacks. In fact, in many categories, consumers seem to be gravitating toward lower-priced items for varying reasons. For example, coming out of the 2007 holiday season, nearly 50 percent of all flat panel sales were over 40 inches. Today, Mr. DuBravac says, that numbers stands closer to 35 percent.

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Tokyo is currently the largest city of origin of Twitter messages in the world, more than twice that of second place San Francisco and New York in the U.S. as of this summer.

(Incidentally, while the Japanese Kanji language Twitter service, which only launched in April of this year, contains advertising, the rest of the planet’s Twitter service currently does not.)

International usage of Twitter is pretty extensive, with multiple languages and character sets available. The recent attacks in Mumbai, India, had a pretty substantial online communications element to them, with the tag #mumbai widely used to track events in multiple languages, and with the attackers using BlackBerrys and mobile phones to collaborate and to monitor the media.

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Global mobile phone unit sales grew a disappointing five percent in the third quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. It was the weakest quarter for the industry since 2002. The firm noted that four of the top six vendors grew at a five percent rate or less; Apple (AAPL) and Samsung outpaced the market.

• Nokia (NOK) shipped 118 million handsets, up five percent. The company lost market share in all regions, with smartphones “a major weak spot.”
• Samsung shipped 52 million handsets, up 22 percent. Its market share reached an all-time high at 17 percent, up from three percent in 1998. The company was strong in North America and Western Europe, weaker in emerging markets.
• Sony Ericsson (SNE, ERIC) shipped 25.7 million handsets, down one percent. With a five percent sequential increase, the company passed LG and Motorola (MOT) to become the the third largest company in the industry by units.

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The market for mobile phones, especially for 3G smartphones, is alive and well, says a report this morning from First Global chief strategist Devina Mehra, who writes that mobile phones “continued to record a solid growth and were up 15.3 percent, year over year” in the second quarter “despite challenging economic conditions across the world.” Mehra notes both a “surge” in first-time buyers in developing markets and replacement sales in mature markets, helped by “smartphone features, such as GPS, multimedia and touchscreen.” Gee, ya think? However, the movement of GPS and multimedia to cheaper phones has resulted in some reduction in the industry average selling prices, notes Mehra.

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Ericsson (ERIC) shares are down sharply in early trading after the company reported disappointing second-quarter results. As Marketwatch notes, profits of 1.9 billion Swedish kronor came in below the Street consensus of 2.94 billion, while revenue of 48.5 billion kronor were about in line.

The company provided a cautious outlook on the telecommunications equipment market. “With no major changes in the market environment, we still find it prudent to plan for a flattish mobile infrastructure market in 2008 and our focus on adjusting our cost base remains,” CEO Carl-Henric Svaberg said in a statement. Ericsson said that sales “have continued to pick up in the U.S.,” while remaining slow in Europe.

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So, this isn’t a huge revelation, but it does confirm what you probably already suspected: Apple (AAPL) dominates the U.S. market for touch-screen mobile phones.

According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Apple will sell 6.3 million iPhones in the U.S. in 2008, or about 35 percent of the touch-screen phone market. (Now, before you go get all up in my face about how the number is too low, remember that this is a U.S.-only number.)

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In the mobile phone business, the big news this week is Friday’s arrival of Apple’s (AAPL) 3G iPhone. But Palm (PALM) apparently has some ideas on how to take advantage of the extra traffic the new iPhone will generate in AT&T (T) stores.

On the official Palm blog, the company yesterday announced plans to start selling a new electric blue version of the Palm Centro at AT&T stores starting on Friday.

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Things keep getting worse for Motorola (MOT) and its unraveling handset business. Yesterday, the stock was pressured by comments from contract manufacturer Foxconn suggesting that weak demand for Motorola’s phone continues.

The stock today has extended its losses, pressured in part from a flurry of negative research from the Street.

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