James Rosewell writes:

Monday’s Mobile World Congress conference agenda dedicated one of 4 streams to Mobile Money - Transfers, Transactions and Technology allowing all stakeholders to share experiences and debate the future of Mobile and Money.

Two types of service dominated presentations and panel discussions; Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enabling payment at traditional Point of Sale (PoS), and the Mobile Wallet replacing plastic or cash.

James Rosewell writes:

Here’s my pick of the 3 most innovative companies I’ve uncovered at the 2010 Mobile World Congress.

Cootek.com win the prize for simplest innovation... an accurate touch screen keyboard. They’re a few months away from being ready to release the software to handset manufacturers, but the demo handsets worked very well. The keyboard assumes the user is not going to press the intended key, but in fact might miss and press another key in the same area. Based on this knowledge and an extensive dictionary of words and language context, it’s able to determine the intended word with surprising accuracy. I sincerely hope their technology will be made available for the Nexus One in the not too distant future.

James Rosewell writes:

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, presented a compelling vision of a mobile centric future. The phone has become the “high value end point” for Google services enabled by a combination of increasing handset power, mobile data networks and cloud computing. By far the scarcest resource is the bandwidth available through the mobile data networks. Google appear committed to work with Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to maximise bandwidth usage, although several audience questions suggested scepticism from the main stream mobile industry. Eric expressed a need to maintain a harmonious relationship with MNOs stating Google could not operate its service on mobile devices without their co-operation.

James Rosewell and Mark Bridge report from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where they talk about the launch of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, discuss the movement behind mobile payments and interview Amir Kupervas, CEO of Else Mobile.

Good Technology and LG Electronics have signed a licensing agreement that'll see Good Technology's Good for You mobile email, social networking and online storage service pre-installed on a number of LG mobile phones, including the GW520, GW550, GW620, GD510, GM730 and GM750.

Brian A Bogosian, chairman, CEO and president of Good, said "Today mobile device makers realize that a vertically integrated set of services on a robust platform is a requirement to go along with an attractive form factor in providing complete value to end users".