The amount of money spent on mobile-based advertising in the UK grew by 127% year-on-year to £429.2 million in the first half of 2013.

It means that 14.1% of all digital advertising spend is now targeted at mobile devices, which is nearly double the same period last year.

Figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK digital ad spend report show that spending on mobile advertising in the UK exceeded half a billion pounds last year. Mobile advertising grew by 148% to £526 million in 2012 from £203.2 million in 2011.

As a result, mobile now accounts for 9.7% of all digital advertising spending.

57 of the UK’s top 100 brands now have a mobile-optimised website, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau UK.

That’s a 54% increase from just six months ago, when only 37 of the top 100 brands had optimised their websites for mobile.

A new US-based study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has found that 63% of digital video watching on mobile phones happens at home, not when the user is ‘on the move’.

A significant portion (36%) of this home-based video watching takes place in a room where a TV, desktop computer or tablet is also available for viewing.

New figures from the UK Internet Advertising Bureau reveal that advertising on the internet and on mobile phones has increased by 12.6% to £2.6 billion in the first half of 2012. That’s a £294 million increase from the first half of 2011.

Digital advertising on mobile devices is up 132% to £181.5 million, driven by increasing smartphone ownership.

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?

This week's podcast begins with a heated discussion about the UK government's consultation about improving mobile phone coverage.

Iain, James and Mark then move on to talk about over-the-top voice services, mobile internet usage, patent deals, the UK's next spectrum auction and wearable technology.

Leaving your wallet at home and going shopping with nothing more than your mobile phone is still a science-fiction vision of the future.

But it's getting much closer to reality, thanks to a UK-based company called Corethree. They're currently working with a number of public transport operators and have brought mobile tickets to a wide range of smartphones.

The new Microsoft Band, the Samsung Galaxy A smartphones and the Huawei Honor 6 are all discussed in this week's podcast.

We also look at some of the mobile industry's other big stories, including Amazon UK's mobile phone deals, the Lenovo purchase of Motorola Mobility, LG's quarterly results and the anticipated increase in WiFi hotspots.

We start this week's podcast with news that EE now has the largest 4G customer base in Europe, with 5.6 million UK connections.

There's also talk about a new DIY product for the Internet of Things, the disappearance of Nokia branded smartphones, quarterly results for Apple, increasing M2M connections and a growing market for smartwatches.

The new Apple iPad tablets, Google's latest Nexus devices, Android Lollipop, wearable tech from will.i.am and the world's slimmest smartphone all feature in this week's podcast.

We're also talking about free mobile data for Christmas, 4.5G technology being rolled out in the UK, 5G technology being tested in South Korea, the end of an era for webOS and video messages that self-destruct.