Visa Europe says the adoption of NFC contactless payments has reached a ‘critical point’ across Europe.

More than 19 million transactions took place in March 2013, driving the total spend on contactless cards and smartphones equipped with a Visa payWave app to over €1 billion (£856 million).

Telefónica Digital and Samsung Electronics have announced a global deal that’ll add direct mobile billing to the Samsung Hub and Samsung Apps services.

It means that Telefonica customers will be able to charge the price of apps and other content to their mobile phone bill.

A new survey from the USA has published some of the reasons why consumers are giving up on mobile shopping transactions.

The 2013 Mobile Consumer Insights study, which was conducted on behalf of payment technology company Jumio, found that 68% of smartphone and tablet owners had attempted to make a purchase on their device. However, 66% of these people had failed to complete a mobile-based transaction.

There's a diverse collection of mobile-related news in this week's 30-minute podcast.

We start with the new Twitter music service before moving on to discuss quarterly results, patent licensing, wireless charging, advertising and mobile payments... before ending with a curious report about app-controlled underwear.

Mark Bridge writes:

The past few days have seen the arrival of two familiar seasons. Not only has the sun peeked its head from behind the clouds in an approximation of Spring but the mobile industry has been releasing its quarterly results.