‘Tis the season to be merry — and attend parties, host family dinners, bake pies, and exchange gifts. Shopping, of course, is a major part of the holiday season and mobile shopping continues to increase in popularity as one in four purchases will be made on a mobile device this year, according to Shopify, a leading ecommerce platform. Shopify predicts that mobile shopping will continue to grow and estimates that in 2013, 43 percent of holiday purchases will be made on a mobile device or tablet.

Smartphones and tablets are essential tools for the holidays to help simplify and organize your life during this busy season. You can use these apps to find tips for holiday greetings, cooking, managing to-do lists and holiday gift ideas. U.S. Cellular is putting the “app” into Happy Holidays, and recommends a variety of helpful apps for the holiday season:

• Send holiday cards — Does the prospect of licking hundreds of envelopes and postage stamps make you feel like The Grinch? Then use JustWink to send festive, personalized cards via email, text or social media, streamlining your holiday greetings and ending the drudgery of stuffing and mailing holiday cards.

• Save money — Do you have a lot to buy but you’re on a tight budget? The Coupons App lets you save money wherever you shop. Get real-time deals for your favorite stores, restaurants, gas stations and more – right at your fingertips.

• Update your calendar — With so much going on, it can be daunting to try and manage everyone’s schedules. The free U.S. Cellular Family Organizer app helps manage shopping and to-do lists, as well as coordinate and share family calendars. Family members who have the Samsung Galaxy S® III can share photos, calendars, documents and even video by simply touching Samsung Galaxy S® III phones together.

• Become a better cook — Tap into your inner Julia Child with ChefTap, an app that automatically imports recipes from any website or blog. Whether you’re cooking a holiday ham or looking for recipes for a cookie swap, you’ll easily find what you need at this one-stop-shop.

• Online shop till you drop — Google Shopper lets you find information, pricing and reviews on millions of products, searching by cover art, barcode or even by voice and text. You can easily save items to your shopping “wish list” in case anyone asks what you want for the holidays this year!

About U.S. Cellular

U.S. Cellular rewards its customers with unmatched benefits and industry-leading innovations designed to elevate the customer experience. The Chicago-based carrier has a strong line-up of cutting-edge devices that are all backed by its high-speed nationwide network that has the highest call quality of any national carrier. By the end of 2012, 58 percent of customers will have access to 4G LTE speeds. U.S. Cellular was named a J.D. Power and Associates Customer Service Champion in 2012 for the second year in a row. To learn more about U.S. Cellular, visit one of its retail stores or uscellular.com. To get the latest news, promos and videos, connect with U.S. Cellular on Facebook.com/uscellular, Twitter.com/uscellular and YouTube.com/uscellularcorp.