The year should see investments doubling overall, with a focus on m-commerce and mobile services for food delivery, mobile learning, and even mobile dating.

FORBES: 4 Predictions For The Brazilian Mobile Phone Market For 2013

Prominent examples include MoneyBox Africa and M-PESA, mobile-phone based money transfer services that allow customers to deposit and withdraw money, transfer money to others, pay bills and make purchases.

FORBES: Written by Marty Beard

Afghanistan pays policemen and other officials their wages using the local version of M-PESA. Tanzania accepts tax payments by mobile-money services.

ECONOMIST: Mobile-money services: Let us in | The

While EasyPaisa, M-Pesa, and other such services around the world are significant developments, some bigger industry players are looking at the global picture.

CNN: Cell-phone banking offers financial help to Third World

M-I is a wholly owned subsidiary of oil field services firm Schlumberger.

NPR: Claims Against BP Contractors Dismissed At Trial

And lately Kenya has discovered a further benefit: the success of M-PESA has provided the foundation for a group of start-ups in Nairobi that are building new products and services on top of it (see article).

ECONOMIST: Mobile-money services

Batter contends that M-Go will do more than simply match content available on other online video services.

FORBES: M-Go: Technicolor, Dreamworks Back New Video Service

M-PESA, first launched by the Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom, has since expanded mobile money services into other developing nations.

FORBES: Written by Marty Beard

"I'm just as surprised as anyone else right now, " Brenda Lightfoot-Handy, director of food services at Palm Elementary, told the Fresno Bee.

NPR: Officials: Man Shoots Daughter With 3 Kids In Home

Rebecca Wells, 51, an L.A. County employee in the Department of Internal Services, was last seen alive by a co-worker Friday morning around 9 a.m.

FORBES: Dead In Her Cubicle, No One Notices