Last year we reported a number of mobile banking and mobile payment stories - and talked to Ben Whitaker of Masabi about mobile tickets. The latest update on this subject comes from Informa Telecoms and Media, which predicts that almost 300 billion transactions worth more than $860 billion will be conducted using a mobile phone in 2013. That represents a twelve-fold increase in five years. The researchers also calculate that over 445 million mobile customers will be regularly using their mobile phone to purchase physical goods and services by 2013, with 'virtual' products accounting for just 5% of mobile payments. [Source: FierceWireless.com; Informa report]