Online marketplace eBay, which already owns PayPal, has now agreed to acquire California-based mobile payment service Zong for around $240 million.

Zong offers 'direct carrier billing', enabling consumers to pay for purchases using their mobile phone number. The appropriate payment amount is then added to the customer's mobile account.

Apple has announced that over 15 billion applications have been downloaded from its App Store, which currently holds more than 425,000 apps.

In addition, the company has paid app developers over $2.5 billion to date.

Earlier this year we reported that Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom-Orange had agreed to work together on machine-to-machine communication in a number of countries. The agreement currently covers France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK.

TeliaSonera has now joined the M2M Service Cooperation Agreement between the two companies, adding Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania to the list of countries.

Mark Bridge writes:

When applications first hit the headlines, there were many stories about developers making small fortunes just from selling applications. Now there’s much more focus on promoting the app.

To understand what's changed - and to discover how developers get their apps noticed inside ever-expanding app stores - I spoke to Carsten Frien. He's CEO & co-founder of mobile advertising marketplace madvertise, a company that's based in Germany and has recently opened an office in the UK.

Nathan Vautier, managing director of Sony Ericsson UK and Ireland, is reported to be leaving his job in the next few months.

His next role is "not in direct competition with Sony Ericsson", according to the company.