Zippo Virtual Lighter Flicked by 3m iPhone Owners

With more than 25,000 applications to choose from, who’d have thunk that iPhone owners would flock towards a virtual lighter. But that’s what they’re doing. In fact, the Virtual Zippo Lighter from Moderati has been downloaded more than three million times.

Since making its debut Apple’s App Store in October, the free app has bucked the trend of remaining a popular download for a month or two and has stayed a top 40 download. It’s still seeing some 100,000 new downloads every week.

Folks who download the application, which brings the look-and-feel of a Zippo lighter to the iPhone, can engrave their virtual lighter case or customize it with one of the many available designs.

Moderati plans to update the Virtual Zippo Lighter to take advantage of the new features in the iPhone 3.0 software, but hasn’t said just what those enhancements will be.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.