The mobile payments industry.

Successful technologies, over the years, have ultimately tended to simplify things for the end user. Companies that master convenience are amply rewarded, time and time again. There's one particular area in mobile technology that offers to make our lives even easier. So just what is this industry, and what companies are positioned to reel in big profits when it takes off?

Checking out, simplifiedThe groundbreaking new technology -- expected to become a $600 billion area by 2016 -- is the mobile payments industry. Not surprisingly, Google(NASDAQ: GOOG  ) is one of its pioneers; its Google Wallet product it one of the earliest on the scene, and it has the ambitious aim of making the traditional wallet obsolete. By connecting your credit card accounts to your Google Wallet application, you'll be able to go to any merchant equipped with near-field communication technology, confirm your payment on your phone, and -- voila! -- walk on out of the store with your purchase, legally. No clunky credit cards, no paper receipts, no problem. It almost sounds too good to be true.

While Google has gone after mobile payments in a completely new way, it hasn't yet really embraced the swipe-your-physical-credit card space quite like others have. Frankly, this may be another instance (self-driven cars, anyone?) of Google getting a bit ahead of itself. After all, we still live in a plastic-loving society; perhaps that's why mobile payment systems that still embrace physical credit cards have done quite well in their own right.

A standout in this category is Square, the private San Francisco-based company co-founded by Twitter's Jack Dorsey. The company's product, a square-shaped credit card reader, connects to the headphone jack of any mobile device, and enables mobile users to quickly swipe and sign for purchases on their touchscreens. It's caught on in a hurry: the company is on track for $8 billion in payment volumes this year, more than four times the pace of last year's transactions

eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) PayPal Here is very similar. In fact, it's an unapologetic emulation of Square. There are only two notable differences between PayPal Here and Square: PayPal Here's mobile credit card swiping device is shaped like a triangle rather than a square, and it charges 2.7% per transaction vs. the 2.75% that Square charges. 

eBay's foray into this area makes sense, and honestly it has a major leg up on current and future competitors by way of its well-established reputation and years of experience in the payment-processing business. There's no doubt PayPal Here is a force to be reckoned with.

A different approachA discussion of anything mobile in today's environment wouldn't be complete without mentioning Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) . That said, the company has entirely neglected making its own payment innovations using near-field communications, or NFC. Some thought an NFC chip would finally be included in the iPhone 5. Alas, the iPhone 5 was released NFC-less, and that may end up being a costly mistake for Apple down the line. When you compound that issue with the fact that Apple's iOS mobile software is rapidly losing ground to Google's Android operating system -- Android devices accounted for 75% of smartphones shipped in the third quarter of 2012 -- Apple could be missing out big time on a multibillion dollar business.

To be fair, while the iPhone 5 doesn't have NFC technology, it does have Passbook, which allows users to store things like loyalty cards, gift cards, boarding passes and game tickets in their phones. Apple VP Phil Shiller went so far as to say the company found NFC essentially an unnecessary compatibility at this stage, saying "Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today." He could be right. Time will tell.

But who actually makes this NFC technology with so much promise? One of the premier NFC chip producers right now is NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI  ) , which supplies NFC technology for Nokia (NYSE: NOK  ) phones as well as Google Wallet-enabled devices such as Samsung's Galaxy S III. If Nokia teams with NXP in future products like its line of Windows phones, NXP could not only stand to benefit from the new business, but could gain exposure to loyal Windows customers in what could prove to be a long and lucrative relationship

While Google only offers a limited assortment of NFC-enabled devices and its Wallet platform isn't quite where it could be, I'm hesitant to scold the company for being ahead of its time. Like with its self-driven cars, the fact that Google is embracing a breakthrough technology like NFC when the rest of the tech world isn't can look a bit risky. But if and when consumers start to demand NFC-capable devices, Google and its Google Wallet will be light-years ahead of competition.

There is absolutely no argument that Apple is at the center of technology's largest revolution ever, and that longtime shareholders have been handsomely rewarded with over 1,000% gains. However, there is a debate raging as to whether Apple remains a buy. The Motley Fool's senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief, Eric Bleeker, is prepared to fill you in on both reasons to buy and reasons to sell Apple, and what opportunities are left for the company (and more importantly, your portfolio) going forward. To get instant access to his latest thinking on Apple, simply click here now.

Google Nexus 4

The latest Google smartphone sold out in some countries within an hour of its release on Tuesday.

Nexus 4 handsets made by South Korea's LG Electronics were available at Google's online Play shop, where stock was quickly depleted and notices posted asking shoppers to leave email addresses to be alerted when more are available.

"There's been so much interest for the Nexus lineup that we've sold out of some of our initial stock in a few countries," the Nexus team said in a post at Google+ social network.

"We are working hard to add more Nexus devices to Google Play in the coming weeks to keep up with the high demand." At a starting price of $299 for smartphones not bound to particular carriers, and therefore unsubsidised by telecom companies, Nexus 4 models were deemed a bargain at half the price of similarly "unlocked" iPhones from Apple."Nexus 4 is the new smartphone from Google," the Play store page said. "With cutting edge hardware, the latest version of Android, and the best Google apps - Nexus 4 puts the world's information at your fingertips."

Reports early on Tuesday indicated that Play sold out of Nexus 4 smartphones in the US, Britain, Germany and elsewhere, with people complaining of frustrating experiences at the inundated online shop.

The Nexus 4 is equipped with a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GBs of RAM, an eight-megapixel camera and up to 16GBs of storage.

Google on Tuesday also began selling new seven-inch and 10-inch Nexus tablet computers as well as rolling out the latest version of Android mobile operating system as an over-the-air update to Nexus devices.

Apple and HTC settle patent disputes

Apple and Taiwanese phonemaker HTC have settled all their outstanding disputes over patents, ending a fight that began in March 2010. The two firms also signed a 10-year licence agreement that will extend to current and future patents held by one another. HTC competes with Apple, Samsung and others in phones and tablets

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Apple has been embroiled in a series of "patent wars" with phone makers and with arch-rival Google. Unlike its rivals, HTC's sales have been in decline since the second half of 2011, despite having become a major global phone company by aligning itself to Google's Android platform. The firm has upgraded its HTC One flagship phone and introduced two new models running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software.

"HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation," said Peter Chou, the head of HTC. The firm said recently it expects sales will be lower than had been expected at the end of the year as the Taiwanese smartphone maker has been finding it hard to emulate the success of its rivals. HTC and Apple were fighting more than 20 cases in the world, according to the AFP news agency.

Apple won an order almost a year ago from the US International Trade Commission, which issued a "limited exclusion order" directing that HTC stop bringing offending smartphones into the US from April. And in May, the US mobile carrier Sprint had to delay the introduction of a smartphone using Google's Android operating system after the devices were blocked by US customs due to an Apple complaint.

Ongoing cases

Apple and its rivals have been suing and countersuing for the past several years, accusing each other of copying designs and ideas in the lucrative smartphone space. Apple and Samsung, for example, have filed legal cases against each other in more than 10 countries, each accusing the other of violating its patents.

A California court earlier this year awarded Apple $1.05bn (£652m) in damages against Samsung, after ruling several of its software and design technologies had been infringed, but the Korean firm is calling for a retrial. And last week, a US judge dismissed Apple's case in which it alleged that Google's Motorola unit was seeking excessive royalty payments for patents.

Samsung challenges Apple's $1bn patent award verdict

Samsung's filing highlights that it is the biggest direct shareholder in Seagate, following a $1.4bn deal in 2011. "Mr Hogan's failure to disclose the Seagate suit raises issues of bias that Samsung should have been allowed to explore in questioning," its lawyers wrote. Mr Hogan did mention that he had worked for Seagate in court. When questioned about the issue by Reuters, he added that he had never been asked to list every lawsuit he had been involved in.

'Sending a message'

Samsung has called for a retrial of a recent patent dispute case, claiming the jury foreman had "failed to answer [questions] truthfully" and might have been biased. A California court awarded Apple $1.05bn (£652m) in damages, after ruling several of its software and design technologies had been infringed.

Samsung has also alleged that several of the judge's decisions were "unfair". Apple is seeking to increase the size of the award by about $700m. The South Korean firm's accusations were made in paperwork filed on 21 September that had been sealed until now.

Work history

Samsung said foreman Velvin Hogan had provided an incomplete answer during jury selection. It said he had revealed he had been involved in a single previous lawsuit, but had failed to disclose two others. It noted that Mr Hogan had been sued by his former employer - hard disk maker Seagate - for breach of contract, and had subsequently filed for personal bankruptcy.

Judge Koh also imposed limits on Apple during the case, notably rebuffing its lawyer's attempt to submit a long list of potential rebuttal witnesses saying: "Unless you're smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren't going to be called."

When the BBC questioned Mr Hogan about his comments, in August, he acknowledged that jurors had wanted to "send a message" to discourage wilful patent infringement, but added "it wasn't necessarily focused at Samsung - that is where it had been taken out of context".

The filing goes on to suggest Mr Hogan had overstepped the mark during the jury's deliberations. It said several pieces of advice he had given had been "incorrect and extraneous legal standards [that] had no place in the jury room". In addition the Galaxy-device maker took issue with post-verdict interviews Mr Hogan gave, in which he said he wanted "to send a message to the industry at large that patent infringing is not the right thing to do" and "make sure the message we sent was not just a slap on the wrist". It highlighted the fact Mr Hogan had previously remained silent when asked if he had had strong feelings about intellectual property laws.

Courtroom limitations

Samsung also alleges that a new trial should be granted because the time, witness and exhibit restrictions imposed by Judge Lucy Koh were unfair. "The constraints... were unprecedented for a patent case of this complexity and magnitude, and prevented Samsung from presenting a full and fair case in response to Apple's many claims," its lawyer wrote.

Apple declined to comment on Samsung's filing. Its lawyers have called on the judge to increase damages to about $1.75bn on the grounds that the jury found Samsung's infringements of its patents to have been a "wilful" act. It is also wants the judge to impose a sales ban on several of Samsung's handsets and tablets.

Both sides' claims will be considered at a hearing on 6 December.

Courtesy of BBC Click.