Financial services giant MasterCard and mobile carrier Deutsche Telekom announced this morning that they would partner to accelerate adoption of mobile payments, which allow consumers to use their mobile phones to pay for goods and services. MasterCard sees business opportunity in Deutsche Telekom’s 93 million mobile customers in Europe. The companies plan to begin in …

The success of Apple is an oft-told tale, but what is rarely acknowledged is how complex the drivers are of that result. Great design, sure. Innovative form factors, indeed. Pop culture icon, indeed. Lofty price points, absolutely. Savvy corporate moves — well, most of the time — for sure. But sometimes it comes down to cold, hard numbers. As it …

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has acquired software firm NewBay in a $100 million deal, according to an Irish Times report. AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski separately confirmed the deal. Founded in 2002, NewBay specializes in the development of mobile-phone software that allows users to create, store, and share digital content in the cloud. The company had deals with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile …

In a bid to up its smartphone game, Nokia has acquired Chicago-based mobile Web browser firm Novarra. Eleven-year-old Novarra is known for developing the Vision browser, as well as platforms to serve content, advertisements, and analytics. It previously supplied its technology to Palm and U.S. Cellular. [Official Nokia statement] The acquisition makes sense for the world’s largest phone maker, which …

Nokia on Wednesday announced that it’s going all in for 2010, taking the Symbian user interface “to a new level” and delivering the first Maemo 6 “mobile computer” in the second half of the year. Nokia N900 Internet Tablet with Maemo 5 (Credit: Nokia) If that’s not enough, the Finnish company is boosting the relative amount of touchscreen and QWERTY …