The Mobile Marketing Association has arranged over $1 million in funding to launch new global research into the impact of mobile marketing.

The project, which is believed to be the first global research project of its kind, will test real marketing campaigns to determine the economic value of investing in mobile channels compared to traditional marketing channels. It’s been named SMoX.me: Smart Mobile Cross Marketing Effectiveness.

The Mobile Marketing Association has announced the new members who’ll be joining its EMEA board of directors. 13 new members have been elected by the MMA’s membership to join 11 existing board members who weren’t up for re-election.

In addition, Kerstin Trikalitis, CEO of Out There Media, has been appointed to chair the MMA EMEA board.

Google and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) have updated ‘Our Mobile Planet’, the mobile consumer data resource they created last October. It provides free access to data and research from 40 countries in collaboration with the IAB and Ipsos MediaCT.

As part of the re-launch, Google commissioned new research that looked at internet use on smartphones.

The Mobile Marketing Association has announced an updated version of the MMA Universal Mobile Ad Package, which details the ad formats it’s recommending as industry standards for mobile web and in-app advertising.

It follows a consultation period launched in December.

The Mobile Marketing Association has released a revised version of its mobile advertising guidelines.

It’s asking for feedback on the ‘Universal Mobile Ad Package’ before the final version is released in January 2012.

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?

In today's podcast we're talking about Samsung's new Galaxy S4 smartphone, BlackBerry's record-breaking purchase order and Intuit's mobile payment service.

There's also a discussion about the changes at ST-Ericsson, a new CEO coming to ARM, Vodafone's sponsorship plans, management moves at Android and the 2013 Mobile News Awards.

Today's podcast talks about job cuts at Motorola, a tariff promise from Tesco Mobile and a departing CEO at ST-Ericsson.

There's also news about acquisitions, application stores, European network standards and a chilly way of breaking into an encrypted smartphone.

We're back from Mobile World Congress 2013 with the latest news for the UK mobile phone industry.

Today's conversation covers new handsets, forthcoming operating systems, apps, mobile payments, VoIP, 4G and Facebook's two-tier internet.

Today's podcast was recorded at Mobile World Congress 2013, where Mark Bridge has been reporting on the latest news from handset manufacturers.

He also drops into the Global Mobile Awards - and finds out who won the inaugural Dead Technology Award at the unofficial festival fringe.

In today's special programme we're preparing for Mobile World Congress 2013. To find out what to expect, Mark Bridge talks to Dr Windsor Holden of Juniper Research.

Their conversation covers everything from Apple's absence to connected cows - and from new operating systems to paying for applications.