Amazon.com has updated its cloud-based music player - which is currently only for US-based customers - by giving it the ability to ‘scan and match’ music from other sources. It means the service will have similar abilities to the streaming music players offered by Apple iTunes and Google Music.

In order to offer the music matching service the company has signed  agreements with Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and more than 150 independent distributors, aggregators and music publishers.

Preliminary figures from the International Data Corporation estimate that worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2012 reached 25 million units, up 33.6% from the first quarter of 2012 and up 66.2% year-on-year.

Once again, Apple was the largest tablet producer, shipping 17 million iPad devices during the quarter. In fact, all the top four tablet vendors saw year-on-year growth.

Mark Bridge writes:

Microsoft started last week with news of an own-brand rival to the Apple iPad. The new Windows-based Microsoft Surface tablets will start to appear later this year, although full details of the specifications – including whether or not there’ll be cellular connectivity – remain unconfirmed.

The Amazon Appstore, a marketplace for US-based customers to download Android apps, is coming to the UK this summer. Customers in Germany, France, Italy and Spain will also be able to buy and download apps from the app store, which offers a free app every day.

Developers are now being invited to submit apps for distribution.

In this week’s mobile industry news podcast from The Fonecast we’re talking about Facebook’s recent flotation, two new virtual mobile networks, iZettle’s mobile payment service, ebooks, mobile WiFi and much more.

You can listen to the programme on our website audio player, via iTunes, by using our RSS feed or by downloading the MP3.

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.