App store analyst company Distimo and games market research firm Newzoo are working together to provide monthly data on game sales and downloads across the Apple App Store in various markets.

Their first report shows that half of all free and paid app downloads across the USA, UK, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium are games.

Lloyds TSB has been announced as the bank that'll be behind mobile payments on the forthcoming Samsung Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile phone.

It means that the NFC-equipped handsets given to Visa-sponsored athletes will be linked to Lloyds TSB accounts.

The latest research to investigate the ever-growing smartphone market comes from Parks Associates.

It forecasts that over 2 billion people worldwide will own at least one smartphone in 2015, representing a growth in unit sales of over 175% from 2010. Global sales in 2015 alone are expected to exceed 800 million.

In this week's podcast we cover Microsoft's purchase of Skype, Google's launch of Chromebooks and Nokia's name-changing at Ovi.

There's also a lot of news about mobile money, with Visa making plans for the USA, Chiltern Railways introducing m-tickets and TNS reporting a 100% increase in UK mobile banking. In addition, we talk to Yossi Yarkoni of DigiMo about his company's new mobile payment platform.

Mark Bridge writes:

Dr 'Bones' McCoy moves an electronic device over a patient’s leg encased in a plaster case. The device immediately identifies swelling within the cast, alerting the doctor to take action.

But this isn't a medical tricorder being used by the doctor. It's a Google Nexus S mobile phone. And the situation isn't set in the 23rd century. It's now.