Kamehameha Schools' Malama Card shopping discount card introduced in November is going virtual this week in the form of (what else?) a highly functional and free iPhone app, the first of its kind in Hawaii, school officials say.

The card's iPhone application was created by a six-member team spearheaded by Kamehameha Schools' digital designer John Garcia.

An ardent social media user, Garcia knows how people use Twitter and Facebook as well as geolocation sites such as Foursquare and Gowalla. The latter allow users to post their locations and share more information about the locations with a click.

Garcia is hip to the kinds of functionality that a range of social media and smartphone users expect. Despite his knowledge, “;with each new app that you design, you always learn something,”; he said. This is his first geolocation application.

Users of the Malama Card app can send their GPS coordinates via their iPhone to direct the application to bring up a list of merchants and promotions nearest them. A merchant map screen will show users a you-are-here-type map, showing merchant locations and distances from the user.

The application promotes participating tenants with a profile screen that displays address, contact information including a phone number and a Web address. Users can tap the Web address to see more information, or tap the phone number to call the merchant.

The Malama Card application is integrated with Twitter and Facebook to allow users to send status updates on savings and discounts from participating merchants. Users can also send e-mail messages to friends directly from the merchant profile screen.

“;I think the social integration is going to be an important part of making this successful,”; Garcia said.

Merchants will derive great additional value from the free exposure, he said.

As for using the app to get discounts from merchants, a tap of the “;Virtual Card”; screen launches an electronic version of the Malama Card users can show merchants to redeem their discount or participate in whatever promotion the merchant is offering.

It is not the same technology as the growing mobile coupon technology that the United States has been slow to adopt but which is now old-hat in, say, Japan.

This is a mobile loyalty card program, Garcia said. “;You don't need to print a coupon ... it's a membership card and anyone can join. We want as many people to use it as possible.”;

During his market research, Garcia found men who said they would definitely use the app to find discounts on meals. Perhaps the hunter-nature of the male of the species is a factor there.

The Malama Card program was introduced as a way to help Kamehameha Schools' tenants by increasing traffic into their stores, restaurants and service-type businesses and therefore ensure the tenants' ability to pay lease rent, which funds the schools' campus and community outreach programs statewide.

The Malama Card iPhone application will make a public splash in simultaneous 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. events Saturday at Kahala Mall, Pearlridge Center, Royal Hawaiian Center and Windward Mall, where shoppers can get a free, physical Malama Card, watch demonstrations of the virtual card, enjoy Hawaiian entertainment and enter to win prizes.

It should be available in the iTunes App Store later this week. Meanwhile, the Malama Card Web site is available for we iPhone-impaired shoppers.