Research In Motion has announced five new smartphones based on the BlackBerry 7 operating system.

Three will join the BlackBerry Torch model range, the other two are BlackBerry Bold models. It's RIM's largest-ever largest global launch, involving more than 225 carriers and distribution partners worldwide.

The number of mobile payment users around the world will exceed 141.1 million this year, a 38% increase from 2010, according to new research from Gartner. In addition, the total volume of worldwide mobile payments is forecast to exceed $86 billion, up more than 75% from last year's figure.

Despite these projected increases, Gartner doesn't think the mobile payment market is growing as quickly as expected.

PayPal has announced a peer-to-peer NFC solution that's expected to be available towards the end of summer 2011.

A new Android widget will let people pay money to friends by 'tapping' two NFC-compatible phones against each other.

Last month Juniper Research said the number of mobile phone users making payments for digital goods was expected to reach 2.5 billion worldwide by 2015, a 40% increase from this year's forecast of 1.8 billion.

It's now published a new study that looks at all mobile money transactions. The company says the total value of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, money transfers and NFC transactions will reach $670 billion by 2015.

Mark Bridge writes:

There's more to NFC than mobile payments... and there's more to mobile payments than NFC.

The latest audio accessories from Nokia use 'contactless' NFC technology to speed up Bluetooth connections. Simply touch a compatible Nokia phone against the Play 360° loudspeaker and your music will play through the speaker. There's no need to bother with conventional Bluetooth pairing.