The latest research to investigate the ever-growing smartphone market comes from Parks Associates.

It forecasts that over 2 billion people worldwide will own at least one smartphone in 2015, representing a growth in unit sales of over 175% from 2010. Global sales in 2015 alone are expected to exceed 800 million.

In this week's podcast we cover Microsoft's purchase of Skype, Google's launch of Chromebooks and Nokia's name-changing at Ovi.

There's also a lot of news about mobile money, with Visa making plans for the USA, Chiltern Railways introducing m-tickets and TNS reporting a 100% increase in UK mobile banking. In addition, we talk to Yossi Yarkoni of DigiMo about his company's new mobile payment platform.

Mark Bridge writes:

Dr 'Bones' McCoy moves an electronic device over a patient’s leg encased in a plaster case. The device immediately identifies swelling within the cast, alerting the doctor to take action.

But this isn't a medical tricorder being used by the doctor. It's a Google Nexus S mobile phone. And the situation isn't set in the 23rd century. It's now.

Microsoft's puchase of Skype, Google's new Chrome OS computers and the end of the Ovi brand are all discussed this week. There's also plenty of talk about mobile payments, including an interview with DigiMo CEO Yossi Yarkoni.

First there were SIMs the size of credit cards. Then there were the fingernail-sized cards we've become familiar with. More recently we've seen a microSIM in the Apple iPhone 4. And now Apple wants to shrink SIM cards even more.

Apple has contacted the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to propose an ultra-small SIM card for future devices.