American Express, which recently launched its own online payments service for US residents, has now announced a partnership with mobile payment service Payfone. Payfone will combine its mobile authorisation and payment services with Serve, the new American Express payments platform.

Serve already gives customers in the USA a 'virtual wallet' that can be accessed online and via a mobile app.

10 million online consumers in the UK made a transaction using a mobile device last year, according to the results of a survey commissioned by customer behaviour analysis business Tealeaf.

Shopping was the most popular m-commerce activity, although financial transactions, travel bookings and insurance payments were also popular. The average consumer completed 4.4 mobile transactions per month.

Mark Bridge writes:

It's hardly worth mentioning the new iPad, is it?  Not because I'm unimpressed – although I'd describe it as more of an upgrade than a brand-new product – but because everyone else has been talking about it so much. And we'll be doing some more talking in Wednesday's podcast, so let’s move on...

In this week's edition of The Fonecast we’re paying another visit to GSMA Mobile World Congress. There's an interview with Mary Carol Harris, vice president for mobile development at Visa Europe, and a wide-ranging discussion about mobile payment technologies.

Plus, as usual, the team takes its regular look at all the week’s mobile industry headlines - from Vodafone's network problems to the 4G renaming of Snoop Dogg (or 'Dogggg', as he now prefers).

A new report from Juniper Research says the number of active mobile money users globally will exceed 200 million by 2013. Under 100 million people use these services at the moment.

The report says much of this growth will come from developing countries, where users want a way to access basic financial services.