Research In Motion has hired Kristian Tear as its new Chief Operating Officer and Frank Boulben as Chief Marketing Officer.

Kristian Tear joins from Sony Mobile Communications, where he was the company’s Executive Vice President. Frank Boulben was previously Executive Vice President of Strategy, Marketing and Sales for LightSquared. He’s also held senior roles to Vodafone and Orange.

MasterCard has announced a new digital payment service called PayPass Wallet Services.

It’ll enable MasterCard’s banking partners to create their own digital wallets for online shopping - with consumers able to add any credit, debit and prepaid cards - and will also offer in-store NFC payments using compatible mobile phones. In addition, retailers will be able to include MasterCard’s check-out, fraud detection and authentication services into their own internet-connected transaction systems.

Mark Bridge writes:

It's a hard life being an early adopter. Last week in London I walked past a bus shelter that displayed a sequence of posters. Next to the changing display panel was a blue NFC logo.

“For advertiser links and travel information touch your NFC enabled phone above”

North American network operator Sprint has announced that it’s joining the Tizen Association, which is the industry consortium dedicated to supporting the Tizen open-source mobile platform.

Tizen was revealed in September 2011 as a successor to MeeGo.

Market research company Newzoo has published new insights into the UK’s mobile gaming market.

The number of mobile gamers in the UK has grown by 18% year-on-year to 23.9 million people, with 75% of them playing on smartphones and 17% on tablets.