The European Commission has opened three investigations to examine whether tax authorities have made appropriate decisions about corporate tax paid by Apple in Ireland, Starbucks in the Netherlands and Fiat Finance and Trade in Luxembourg.

It’s launched the investigation following media reports that suggest that some companies have received significant tax reductions through ‘tax rulings’ issued by national tax authorities.

A new research report from Berg Insight shows that in-store mobile wallet payments across Europe are expected to grow from less than €100 million (£85 million) in 2012 to €45 billion (£38 billion) in 2017, which is a compound annual growth rate of 275%.

This will give mobile wallets 1.6% of all European credit card and debit card payments in 2017.

This week's edition of The Fonecast starts with news that Motorola Mobility is to lose around a fifth of its staff worldwide. There's also more reorganisation at Nokia, which is passing its Qt software business to Digia.

In addition we're talking about a new US partnership between Starbucks and Square, some good news for Research In Motion, a worrying report for Samsung and a major milestone for Shazam.

Coffee chain Starbucks has partnered with mobile payment company Square to introduce the ‘Pay with Square’ app at around 7.000 US Starbucks stores. In addition, Square will process Starbucks’ US credit and debit card transactions.

Starbucks is investing $25 million in Square with its chairman, Howard Schultz, joining Square’s Board of Directors.

Earlier this year Starbucks introduced its iPhone mobile payment app to the UK - and the coffee company has now added an Android app as well.

The new Android app, which is also launching in Canada, enables customers to pay via a Starbucks Card account using an on-screen barcode. It’s also possible to manage a card account, check loyalty rewards and find local stores.

Mark Bridge writes:

I've previously talked about my Google Nexus S and the challenges of synchronising it with Microsoft Outlook. Well, more like the problem of finding anything that'll do the job.

Mark Bridge writes:

So there I was with my Nexus S, a cup of tea and the challenge of synchronising calendar, contacts, tasks and notes from Microsoft Outlook. I’d found Syncdroid.net and its list of suggestions… and then an email arrived on my phone from the ‘Android Team’

Mark Bridge writes:

So, I’ve just upgraded to the Google Nexus S. The Samsung i9020. That was pretty easy. The local branch of Carphone Warehouse had one in stock.

It’s my first Android phone. In fact, it’s my first upgrade for a few years.

Mobile World Congress is the mobile industry event of the year. It takes place in Barcelona from 14th February this year – and The Fonecast will be heading there to listen to the keynote speeches, attend the briefings and interview many of the visitors.

Mark Bridge writes:

Every year since we started podcasting in 2006, we've used our last regular show of the year to make some predictions for the following 12 months.

This year's podcast on 22nd December was no exception.

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.