Mobile voice services have finally crossed the chasm thanks to the rise (and rise) Apple Siri — the smart, voice-enabled mobile assistant that connects with our personal data and the wider Internet to manage our daily lives. Who are the niche companies with good ideas and huge potential? And how will our requirement for a voice interface challenge mobile search and set new demands on customer service? Bill has also teamed up with the Applied Voice Input Output Society (AVIOS) to organize the Mobile Voice Conference, March 12-14 in San Francisco. MORE >>

How do mobile operators across the Asia Pacific region view increasing competition from banks , credit card companies and mobile payments middlemen? What is driving mobile operators to mobile marketing and advertising strategies? Why is personalization a primary focus across mobile operator app stores and storefronts? The report  – written by MobileGroove  and commissioned by Amdocs Interactive — is based on a survey of 120 telecom executives at major mobile operators across Asia Pacific conducted by market research firm Coleman Parkes. MORE >>

Today marks the launch of  The Mobile Marketing Review , a new podcast series dedicated to educating the mobile industry and providing expert advice on execution, effectiveness and mobile marketing best practice. Each month I will join with co-hosts Kim Dushinski and Linda Daichendt (together we are the Mobile Mavens) to review and rate real-life mobile marketing and advertising campaigns and offer a no-holds-barred analysis of how well the campaigns achieved their objectives and – more importantly- served the interests of all stakeholders, particularly consumers. MORE >>

eMarketer has forecasted the growth of the US mobile payments transactions over the next four years. They believe that the annual mobile payments transactions value will increase from approximately $640 million this year to a whopping $62 billion by 2016. The number of mobile payment users will increase by 6x to 48 million while average annual spending per user will increase by 20x to $1,294. To put these numbers in some context, currently about 1 out 40 Americans is spending about $7 a month using mobile payments.  Eye-Opening Mobile Usage Statistics of Consumers. MORE >>

At m-pulse we wrap up a month dedicated to mobile voice technology and transformation with a look at Nuance, a company aggressively leveraging its long heritage in speech recognition to enable a range of new experiences and – ultimately – a new voice search experience (and ecosystem). Our guest is Kenn Harper , Nuance Mobile Director of Product Management. In other segments we discuss some new numbers from Xyologic, a company tracking app downloads to provide us a more European perspective on the rise of Android and the increasing importance of local content and context. MORE >>