Windows Phone 7 will be released this holiday season, and Microsoft is trying to stir up excitement about it by maxing out its budget. TechCrunch coverage estimates that the Redmond-based company could "spend a half-billion dollars or more in marketing costs and payments to developers and handset manufacturers to subsidize the expense of building phones and apps, so that the Windows Phone 7 ecosystem is well-seeded at launch."

Deutsche Bank telecommunications analyst Jonathan Goldberg estimates $400 million on marketing for the launch. Quoted in TechCrunch, he explains that the OS could succeed by capturing market share from feature phone users instead of stealing from current iPhone or Android handset users. Another source in the same article says that the company will spend $1 billion at the launch on marketing and development costs.

A spending comparison from PC World puts the Microsoft plan into perspective. While $400 or $500 million sounds like a lot, just as much was spent on marketing for Windows XP, the first Xbox, and Vista.

After some initial confusion, Engadget reports that Dell is not a launch partner for Windows Phone 7, but will be collaborating on the system as partner. While Dell has released Android devices recently, it will continue its longtime relationship with Microsoft. Device or release information was not currently available in their coverage.

The future mobile operating system has received mixed reviews on new features. As PC World reports, with a direct link to Xbox Live accounts, gamers can access scores, avatar and friend lists. The phone will have its own game titles with free demos and ports of Xbox 360 franchises such as Halo Waypoint and Crackdown 2L Project Sunburst.

Bank of America and Visa Inc will launch a smartphone purchasing test system next month. As covered by Reuters Thursday evening, the largest US consumer bank and the largest payment processor in the world will run a system in the New York area that will allow customers to use cell phones installed with near field communication chips to use the handsets at point-of-sale devices in stores instead of using credit cards.

A big step in bringing mobile phone purchasing to the US, the program will run from September to December, after which the “digital wallet” will be assessed for national deployment. Visa spokesperson Elvira Swanson said in Reuter’s coverage that “the Bank of America pilot was not larger than the company’s other mobile trials, but she said it could have a more powerful impact on the market than some previous pilots.” She added, “It’s a way to accelerate mobile contactless payments in the U.S. market.”

An obstacle to wide deployment in the near future is the fact that near field communication (NFC) has not been installed standard in many popular smartphones, as ReadWriteWeb explains. This lack may be made up for in future iterations of the iPhone as evidenced by Apple’s hire of an NFC expert, as well as Android handsets.

Reporting from IntoMobile in April promised NFC integration soon: Apple has a patent for NFC for purchasing event tickets, and NXP Semiconductors general manager Henri Ardevol predicts that “First phones will be available this year and some more first half of 2011.”

Additional applications for NFC besides payments and e-tickets include bluetooth alternatives for headset pairing, file transfer, wireless network access, and augmented reality applications.

Google released Voice Actions today, a new Android app that provides voice-activated support for a list of tasks that users can now ask their mobile phone to do. Augmenting the voice search option on all Android mobile handsets running version 2.2, this will allow for even less typing or other manual navigation for such common tasks as making calls, writing e-mails or texts or listening to music.

Demonstrated at a press gathering in San Francisco, Voice Actions helps users perform commonly performed workflows that are listed in Google’s blog and mobile blog:

• send text to [contact] [message]
• listen to [artist/song/album]
• call [business]
• call [contact]
• send email to [contact] [message]
• go to [website]
• note to self [e-mail to self]
• navigate to [location/business name]
• directions to [location/business name]
• map of [location]

Android’s new functionality is being developed to give users what Google refers to as “the most natural way of interacting with a phone.” While voice command development has been complicated, it is still at a more usable stage than mind-activated mobile phone navigation such as ThinkContacts’ app.

Voice Actions is not the first of its kind, and as The New York Times’ Bits Blog explains, its release engages in competition with Apple’s Siri, a voice-command app for the iPhone. Apple acquired the developers of Siri back in April, which can follow more commands, such as booking restaurant reservations.

Also announced today, Google’s Chrome-to-Phone is a new button on the Chrome Web browser interface that sends selected information directly to an Android device (again, using the latest version 2.2). The button can send phone numbers, links, maps, and allows for an easier way to take tasks from the personal computer to a mobile device.

The day Flipboard launched, Robert Scoble evangelized it. Which is about as successful a launch a company can hope for, even if it hadn’t yet scaled to handle Scoble’s profound influence.

Scoble continued to play with Flipboard the rest of the day his article appeared (we know; we were sitting next to him), and since then the app has caught the international imagination in a way that no other iPad app has.

It’s the device’s first killer app.

L’Atelier France’s Caroline Leduc caught up with Flipboard CTO Arthur Van Hoff this week.

L’Atelier: Why create a magazine that’s based on user-generated content?

Van Hoff: With a billion messages posted each day on the web, social networks have become the primary tool for for discovering and sharing content. The only thing is, this stream is dispersed and needs to be organized to use it.

Is it the user who organizes their Flipboard, or is the process automated?

In the current version, Flipboard examines the user’s browsing history and what kind of content they normally access, for example be social networks, news, music or sports. In the next version of our app, which should be released by the end of fall, we hope to integrate real-time search software developed by Ellerade. This will let the app determine which information and social connections – friends – the user is closest to. So if I like politics and spend a lot of time on political sites or blogs, the application will refine my Flipboard so that information has a prime spot.

Do you see Flipboard as a form of new media?

Yes, it’s part of a new way of reading and keeping informed. Today on the web you need to go on different sites to be able to follow the information streams around your interests. And if you want to share something with a friend, you need to be able to create a URL link. We want to focus on information that is useful to the user. In Flipboard’s design, Mike McCue and Evan Doll – the creators of the app – were largely inspired by the printing industry. They thought that if it’s possible assemble a certain amount of information on a simple paper document every day, that should easily be as possible with social media. They also realized that you can make social media look better aesthetically with the typographic techniques, page layout – photos – of traditional magazines.

What’s your business model?

We hope that Flipboard becomes a new entry point for brands in the social networking landscape. As such, we hope that all content – advertising included – can have have a “social” aspect.

Today, people want to share everything on the web – photos, comments, opinions. In this sense, Flipboard has the capacity to make the marketing message more immersive. Because the problem today with web advertising is that it’s concentrated on internet users’ clicks and interests, without considering the consumer experience. We hope as well that this electronic magazine will be a new playground for app creators and developers.

The consumption of mobile data is constantly growing. According to ABI Research’s report “Mobile subscriber ARPU, Voice, Messaging, and Data Traffic Forecasts,”  American consumers will use an average of 159 megabytes of data in 2010, compared to 100 megabytes last year.

ABI forecasts more than 55 percent growth in mobile data consumption between 2009 and 2015 in the U.S., and 42 percent annual growth in Europe.

“Mobile voice has already been surpassed by mobile data traffic on some networks, and this trend will only accelerate,” says ABI Research wireless analyst Bhavya Khanna.

“This boom in usage is driven by the rapid adoption of smartphones in these markets.”

Despite this explosion in the use of mobile data, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will not exceed 20 percent in the U.S., due to the popularity of fixed unlimited data contracts among consumers, which have caused revenue to plateau. With the large investment that operators have made in 4G networks, these small returns will lead furnishers to change the way they manage their services.

Despite this, emerging markets still represent an important market. For example, Africa, where despite stiff competition among operators, the growth in calls, by minute, has grown 9 percent between 2009 and 2010.

According to a recent report by Ernst & Young, the growth of mobile data will create another risk for operators: to become less important than phone manufacturers and providers.

Originally published by L’Atelier France.

The US Copyright Office ruled this week that “jailbreaking” smartphones is legal in some cases. The term jailbreaking became known for altering mobile phone operating systems in order to install unauthorized applications, primarily after the first iPhone and its App Store were released. This decision will cause some re-writing of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to be altered.

As CNN’s Money Blog explains, “jailbreaking iPhones in order to download apps that are unavailable in Apple’s App Store had been a legal gray area: Apple technically had the right to request a $2,500 government fine for damages every time a user violated the law that bans ‘circumvention of technological measures’ controlling access to copyrighted works — in this case, the iPhone’s iOS software.”

Apple never requested a fine, but did take measures to ensure that its right to do so remained preserved. The Cupertino-based company filed an objection to the now-approved decision last year. Jailbroken iPhones may still be subject to other company measures - owners of the device lose their warranty after going through the process.

The decision also included legalizing altering mobile phones so that owners can switch between wireless plan providers. Essential use exemption can only apply to the owner of the device, not to another company, service or organization.

Opposition to digital copyright legislation has considered this development a significant improvement in how legal institutions interpret the DMCA and employ Fair Use. According to CNET on Thursday, fair use violates literal copyright law, but in practice has “limited negative impact on the rights infringed.” This argument is founded on the tiny proportion of code altered in the case of the iPhone, an interesting legal basis. This form of fair use is referred to as “essential use,” and can only be applied to the actual owner of the device, not extended to third parties who may extend their services.

Sure, Foursquare’s slow growth continues, but it no longer has the momentum that it did six months ago. It was replaced briefly by Chatroulette as thing of the moment, and the last few months have been driven mainly by Apple’s PR machine.

Even last week’s Geo-Loco 2010 was rather subdued, with much less LBS theory and future thought flying around than a few months back at Where 2.0. More of a focus on brand studies this time around. It’s telling that the biggest story coming out of the event was Fred Wilson’s faux-controversial “Apple is evil” remarks.

The truth is that only 4 percent of U.S. adults use location-based services, according to Forrester. For the amount of attention location-based services get in the tech world, 84 percent of U.S. online adults are not even familiar with such applications.

Only 1 percent use location-based applications more than once a week.

This data in mind, Forrester believes that this sector is not yet ready for marketers.

“Location-based social networks (LBSNs), such as foursquare and Brightkite, offer interactive marketers the promise of right-time, right-place marketing by connecting people and nearby points of sale with geotargeted media,” writes Forrester analyst Melissa Parish.

Right now, the audience is primarily male (80 percent), 19-35 (70 percent), college educated or higher (70 percent) and consider themselves influencers (38 percent).

“The market is quite nascent, with only a few million consumers using geolocation apps monthly. Marketers need to know what audiences can be reached with these services, which companies — if any — are ready for prime time, and whether LBSNs align with business objectives,” Parish writes.

“Forrester recommends that bold, male-targeted marketers start testing but that most marketers should wait until they can get a bigger bang for their buck, when adoption rates increase and established players emerge from the fray,” Parrish writes.

A study released today shows adoption of mobile banking has surged compared to last year, particularly for the 16-24 age demographic. The fourth annual Global Consumers and Convergence survey covers US consumers as tracked by audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG LLP on the usage of mobile devices - “cell phones, smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) for financial transactions and payments.” Of the general population, nineteen percent of US consumers have conducted some sort of mobile banking, up from nine percent in the last survey eighteen months ago. About one third of the younger category have participated in these financial activities.

As significant as adoption rates are reasons for not adopting, and the most significant is security and privacy concerns - over half of US respondents who have not conducted mobile banking cite this reason. But Carl Carande, a principal in KPMG LLP’s Banking and Finance Advisory practice believes that this perception will quickly change. Mobile banking is becoming more successful as the public learns it is useful as well as safe. ”To continue to spur adoption, banks may need to continue to educate consumers about the security of the mobile banking environment and further promote the availability of this vehicle that helps make banking more accessible and convenient.”

Just as significant, nearly three-quarters of this same group do not have or do not know if their bank offers this service.

Comfortable mobile bankers increased six percent since the last survey, to sixteen percent. Those not comfortable with using their mobile devices for banking dropped eleven percent to 55 percent. But though our rates have improved, the rest of the world enjoys a one-third comfort level with mobile banking.

“U.S. consumers are warming up to the ‘mobile wallet’ concept in which the mobile device will function as a payment and financial transaction instrument,” said Mitch Siegel, director in KPMG LLP’s Banking and Finance Advisory practice.  ”Banks are actively engaged in developing platforms and interfaces that will make this concept seamless and familiar for the consumer, while also developing business relationships with players involved in developing the end-to-end eco-system.”

Closely related to mobile finance is commerce growth trends, which are running parallel to the former. Ten percent of US consumers use their mobile devices for e-retail, double the rate from 2008, but still far behind the 28 percent of the global rate. Investment also had a ten percent share of US consumers, though nearly thirty percent of global consumers buy or sell stock on their mobile device.

Smartphone and 3G growth in South America will create an ecosystem that is capable of supporting mobile banking, according to a Pyramid Research study, “Smartphone, 3G Growth Creates Mobile Banking Opportunity in Latin America.” Banks and telecom operators will be the principle beneficiaries of this growth.

“8.6 percent of all the new units sold in Latin America in 2010 will be smartphones,” said Pyramid’s David Noe.

“”However, this percentage will grow dramatically during the forecast period; our estimation is that almost one-third (32.2 percent) of the new handhelds sold by 2014 in Latin America will be smartphones,” Noe said.

The advanced functionalities of smartphones will enable better access to mobile banking services. According to the report, the mobile payment market should spread across low and high-income populations, as well as among more advanced users. Financial institutions can not miss this opportunity.

To succeed, financial institutions need to take vary their strategies according to the customer.

“The needs, mobile phone capabilities and education levels of end users vary wildly,” Noe said. In an earlier report by Frost & Sullivan, mobile services are set for strong growth in South America. In 2009, the region accounted for $2.5 billion in revenue, and accounted for more than 60 million customers.

Firefox Home was extended to iPhone and iPod Touch by Mozilla yesterday. The service, formerly just for full-sized computers, enables users of the Firefox browser to synchronize their browser data across multiple computers and store it remotely in case a backup is needed. This is done with the browser extension Firefox Sync, a Mozilla project formerly known as Weave.

The new app, free from the iTunes store, provides access on the iPhone to browser history, bookmarks and open tabs. The data is securely synced to the cloud and can be accessed in the smartphone’s Safari browser, and is password and "secret phrase" protected. If the user does not already have a Firefox Sync account, the app sends an email on how to set up the service.

The interface is sparse, with a menu to navigate to tabs, bookmarks and a search bar for same and history. The search bar is commonly referred to as an "Awesome Bar," just as in Firefox or Chrome it attempts to predict as the user types. The links open in a limited-functionality browser which can transfer navigation to Safari when it encounters video or other media that it cannot render.

Some may wonder about the absence of a fully functioning Firefox browser, especially with the mobile version Fennec only released to Android so far. But as ReadWriteWeb muses, what many users appreciate about Firefox, the extensions, are simply out of the league of iPhone specifications. Additionally, TechCrunch thinks that Apple would only block a full browser app.

Firefox Home’s strength lies in its simplicity, as is often the case with mobile innovation. In this case, developers have gone with less is more, and Home does what it is meant to do well. Users can access their work quickly and easily, and efficiently move from desktop navigation to commuter workflow.