Mobile commerce is expected to have a big impact on the Australian retail landscape, according to the mCommerce: Secure Insight research published by PayPal.

Unsure that market forces alone can do the job, PayPal is betting Singapore's government can spur the development and adoption of mobile e-commerce applications in the Southeast Asian city-state.

Using MasterCard's MoneySend application, iPhone and iPad users will be able to send or receive money using their phone or tablet, the card company said on Thursday.

Visa expects soon to begin trials of contactless payments system for Apple's iPhone, using a special case for the phone developed by DeviceFidelity.

Tyfone is putting the pieces together for a commercial mobile wallet offering, forming an alliance with First Data.

The mobile phone is turning into the platform of choice for banking in emerging markets. In developed markets, however, the phone has struggled to compete with existing payment methods, and the challenges aren't going away in 2010.

Money transfers and payments over mobile phones will be among the top 10 most important mobile applications by 2012, market research company Gartner said on Wednesday.

Ericsson will soon launch a platform designed to let consumers buy online content such as news stories with the charge billed to their mobile phone rather than other payment methods, such as a credit card.