A new study says South Africans and Kenyans are Africa’s most active Twitter users and that the social networking site is rapidly becoming a key information tool across the continent.

Researchers analyzed more than 11.5 million tweets from specific locations in Africa during the last three months of 2011.

A new report from ABI Research says the trend towards ‘freemium’ pricing on mobile apps will continue next year. The term refers to a product that’s offered free with a chargeable option for customers who want additional features or enhanced functionality.

Apple enabled in-app purchasing for free apps just over two years ago.

Not content with its efforts to put television on mobile phones, Vodafone has now launched a plug-in keyboard that turns your TV into a mobile phone.

The ‘Webbox’ is aimed at emerging markets rather than the UK, with Vodacom in South Africa preparing to start selling the Webbox next week.

A new report from Pyramid Research says more than 200 million mHealth applications are in use today, with the number expected to increase threefold by 2012.

Browser company Opera has taken a look at ‘gender equality on the mobile web’ in its latest State of the Mobile Web report. It notes that the percentage of women on the mobile web has risen 575% in the last two years. South Africa currently has the world’s highest proportion of mobile internet users – 43.5% - followed by the USA with 35.6%, Russia at 32.4% and the United Kingdom with 31.5%. At the other end of the scale, India has the fewest female users (4.0%), followed by Nigeria (5.4%), China (11.6%) and Vietnam (17.9%).

VOA News writes:

New market research has many technology experts thinking the era of the personal computer (PC) is coming to an end as consumers worldwide begin to embrace tablet computers and smartphones.

Hazel Allsopp of Purple WiFi writes:

Retail and hospitality businesses have long been aware of the need to offer free WiFi access to their customers. The use of smart phones is becoming increasingly widespread, and people expect to get online wherever they are, whatever they’re doing.

The latest large brand to recognise this is Intercontinental Hotels Group, who announced last month that they would be offering free access to 71 million loyalty scheme members’ worldwide. The decision was made in response to a survey in which 43% of guests said they wouldn’t stay in a hotel if it didn’t offer free WiFi.

Mark Bridge writes:

Let’s start with a slightly belated birthday wish to the hand-held mobile phone, which made its first public appearance on 3rd April 1973. At that point we’d had carphones for a while… but this was the first time anyone had heard the phrase “Sorry, I’ve got to go, the battery’s running out” spoken in public. Or something like that.

Mobile apps are a hot topic in the Aerospace and Defence industry right now.

Jeff Pike, Head of Marketing and Global Markets Development for IFS in the Aerospace and Defence industry, outlines five key elements which are key to a successful military mobile app.

Rick Pantaleo of voanews.com writes:

Forty years ago today the cell phone era began on the streets of New York City. The historic first cell phone call was made by Martin Cooper, director of systems operations for the communications division of the Motorola company, to his main rival at Bell Labs.

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.