A new Ofcom report says smartphone ownership nearly doubled in the UK between February 2010 and August 2011 - increasing from 24% to 46% penetration - with take-up higher in the UK than in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

In addition, the number of people using their mobiles to go online was higher in the UK than in any other country surveyed.

A new report from KPMG says consumers around the world are embracing new technology - and consumers in the UK are adopting many of these new technologies faster than the rest of the world.

The KPMG report, entitled ‘The Converged Lifestyle’, also says UK consumers appear to be more concerned about privacy and security than other countries.

More and more UK shoppers are using their mobile phones to visit web sites when out shopping - and many of them are checking competitors’ prices.

That’s the conclusion of the latest eCustomerServiceIndex survey from research company eDigitalResearch and e-retail organisation IMRG.

Figures in the latest IBM Coremetrics Benchmark suggest that record numbers of US consumers will shift their online Christmas shopping from PCs to mobile devices.

Last October, 4.2% of people used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site - but that figure had more than doubled to almost 11% this year. Similarly, mobile sales reached 9.6% in October 2011, up from 3.4% in October 2010.

The Mobile Money Network has launched its ‘Simply Tap’ shopping application for Android and Apple devices.

Customers who set up a Simply Tap account (including payment details) can then buy products just by entering a short code into the app. The sale is then confirmed, payment is taken and the product is delivered to the customer’s chosen address.