Analyst firm Ovum has published its mobile payment and mobile advertising predictions for this year.

Ovum expects continued technology and service innovation, notably around location-based applications, in the mobile payments space in 2014. However, there will be increasing complexity within the mobile payments ecosystem this year, and on-going challenges around the business model for digital wallet services.

HP has announced its first smartphone devices since discontinuing the Palm webOS range in 2011.

One has a 6-inch screen - the HP Slate6 VoiceTab - and there’s also a HP Slate7 VoiceTab with a 7-inch screen. Both run Android 4.2 on a quad-core processor, are equipped with stereo loudspeakers and have a 5 megapixel camera on the back.

New figures from ABI Research show that shipments of SIM cards fell by 193 million to 4.94 billion units in 2013, which is a year-on-year decline of 3.8%.

The main factor blamed for this drop was the mobile telecom market in Asia, where SIM card shipments fell below 2011 levels with a 10% decrease.

The US government's Federal Trade Commission says Apple has agreed to pay at least $32.5 million in refunds to customers who paid for in-app purchases downloaded by children without their parents’ consent.

In addition, Apple is now required to ensure "that it has obtained express, informed consent from consumers" before charging them for items sold in mobile apps.

A new UK mobile payment solution says it’s being adopted by at least five major financial service providers.

Later this year Zapp will be integrated into the mobile banking applications offered by HSBC, First Direct, Nationwide, Santander and Metro Bank, giving it access to over a third of all UK bank accounts.