Juniper Research has forecast that over 2.5 billion mobile augmented reality (AR) applications will be downloaded to smartphones and tablets every year by 2017.

The research company points out this is 3½ times the number of downloads of the Angry Birds game last year.

The Welsh town of Monmouth is having QR codes - mobile barcodes - added to landmarks and other points of interest. It’s a project called Monmouthpedia, which is described as the first Wikipedia project to cover a whole town.

The QR codes will link to articles on notable places, people, artefacts, flora and fauna in a wide variety of languages including Welsh.

Mark Bridge writes:

The 2012 International CES is expected to be the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow. It runs from 10th to the 13th of January in Las Vegas next year and will contain technology from more than 2,700 companies spread over a record-breaking 1.8 million square feet of exhibition space.

Yesterday I saw a preview of what’s expected there – and all without leaving the UK. Instead I headed to a conference centre where the first-ever ‘CES Unveiled at London’ event took place.

The Layar mobile augmented reality browser is now available for a number of Symbian S60 and Symbian^3 handsets. It overlays online digital content on top of a ‘real world’ image from the phone’s camera.

Users with the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia E7, Nokia N97 and N97 mini devices can download the Layar Reality Browser from the Ovi store.

The total value of mobile augmented reality - a 'digital overlay' shown on top of on-screen images - will approach $1.5 billion (£930 million) in 2015, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

That’s up from just $1.5 million in 2010, an average annual growth of 295% over the five-year period.

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.