A new Ofcom report says smartphone ownership nearly doubled in the UK between February 2010 and August 2011 - increasing from 24% to 46% penetration - with take-up higher in the UK than in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

In addition, the number of people using their mobiles to go online was higher in the UK than in any other country surveyed.

A new report from KPMG says consumers around the world are embracing new technology - and consumers in the UK are adopting many of these new technologies faster than the rest of the world.

The KPMG report, entitled ‘The Converged Lifestyle’, also says UK consumers appear to be more concerned about privacy and security than other countries.

More and more UK shoppers are using their mobile phones to visit web sites when out shopping - and many of them are checking competitors’ prices.

That’s the conclusion of the latest eCustomerServiceIndex survey from research company eDigitalResearch and e-retail organisation IMRG.

Figures in the latest IBM Coremetrics Benchmark suggest that record numbers of US consumers will shift their online Christmas shopping from PCs to mobile devices.

Last October, 4.2% of people used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site - but that figure had more than doubled to almost 11% this year. Similarly, mobile sales reached 9.6% in October 2011, up from 3.4% in October 2010.

The Mobile Money Network has launched its ‘Simply Tap’ shopping application for Android and Apple devices.

Customers who set up a Simply Tap account (including payment details) can then buy products just by entering a short code into the app. The sale is then confirmed, payment is taken and the product is delivered to the customer’s chosen address.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.