Consumers with medical conditions can rest easier with the debut of an ID card that uses SMS, or text messaging, to alert emergency medical workers of patients’ histories.

Called InvisibleBracelet or iB, this is how it works: Consumers sign up online for a $10 annual membership, and after receiving iB cards (which can be carried in wallets, on key fobs, or attached to a bag), they can use the website to program the cards with information about illnesses, allergies, and conditions, as well as one’s emergency contacts. Should a medical emergency occur, first responders will receive a text message with the patient’s information.

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MarketResearch.com has published an in-depth report and analysis on the mobile payments and technology sector entitled “Mobile Payment – Advanced Technologies (NFC), Strategies And Future Of Remote & Proximity Payment In The U.S.”

In it, the research firm details the technology associated with mobile payments — primarily NFC — which it says is in the nascent stage with an adoption rate of only 1.7%.  With the help of NFC technology, banks will be able to tap micro transactions made by cash, representing around 20% of the total transactions in the U.S., according to the research.  This will also help banks to capture the growing GEN Y population as well as the huge underbanked and unbanked population.

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Health care reform may be a particularly American concern, but mobile technology may offer improvements to patients’ lives that everyone could appreciate. In a new Issue Brief, the firm Deloitte says mobile devices like smart phones can help consumers enhance their own, taking certain costs out of the health care system.

Using electronic health records, and collecting information therein via cell phones or other personal portable devices, it may become possible to “analyze aggregate data to activate mobile, patient-specific output such as medication reminders, healthy habit tips and medical bill reminders,” according to Deloitte.

“The personal health record embedded in mobile communication devices (which Deloitte dubs “mPHR”) is the ‘killer app’ that may change the game for providers, consumers and payers,” Paul Keckley, Ph.D., executive director, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, said in a release.  ”Considering that treating chronic disease accounts for more than 70 percent… of the total $2.4 trillion in health care spending in the United States, the business case for (health records in mobile phones) is solid for helping to reduce costs for managing chronic conditions, such as diabetes and obesity.”

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If news of Visa and Bank of America, MasterCard’s mobile PayPass, Google and Paypal, or Apple possibly developing NFC technology hasn’t convinced you that mobile marketing technologies will soon become deeply intertwined in banking, take a look at the winner of the research firm Juniper Research’s 2010 Future Mobile Award: Wells Fargo & Company.

A press release today from Juniper proclaims, “Wells Fargo was chosen based on its multiple platform strategy and continued service innovation such as the recent near real-time warning of potentially fraudulent activity.”

Wells Fargo allows customers–whether their operating systems are iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or even Palm– to access their accounts in several mobile ways: By sending a text message to a short code; by going on the bank’s mobile website; and by using mobile apps.

The financial institution also offers an SMS alert program for its credit card customers. Those who sign up get a text message every time their Visa card is involved in a transaction, alerting customers to potential unauthorized use of their accounts.

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Juniper Research has published a new study/forecast for the mobile payments and M-commerce industry that boasts some pretty strong estimates.  The company predicts that the value of digital and physical goods that people buy with their mobiles will reach $200 billion globally by 2012, compared to just less than $100 billion this year.

Consumer intimidation and fear of overall security remain leading hindrances to its proliferation, but Juniper forecasts that those fears will continue to subside as the availability of secure, easy-to-use payment applications and industry regulation continue to evolve.  Juniper also underlined that retailers and merchants need to communicate the cost of transactions clearly so that people are not discouraged from buying via mobile.

North America and Western Europe will lead the adoption of mobile commerce, the study suggests, and in that sense Juniper sees a “significant opportunity” for brands, retailers and merchants to increase their revenues through highly targeted marketing campaigns, using apps and mobile web payments as a convenience play for users.  The study titled “Mobile Payments for Digital & Physical Goods: Players, Markets & Opportunities, 2010-2014,” can be downloaded here.

Software piracy has long been a problem, and nowhere is it more apparent than in the mobile app ecosystem that’s growing larger everyday.  A new report published by 24/7 Wall St. has estimated that Apple’s App Store alone has lost $450 million to piracy since its inception a few short years ago.

While some are questioning the methods used to arrive at such a high figure, the problem of mobile app piracy is apparent nonetheless.  Justifying it’s figures, 24/7 Wall St. estimates that 17 percent of the 3 billion apps downloaded from the App Store were paid apps, or roughly 510 million.  They then multiply that by three and assume that 1.53 billion apps have been pirated.

Multiplying that figure by $3, which is the average price of a paid app, equates to $4.59 billion.  Assuming that 10 percent of app pirates would have actually purchased the app in question, that’s how they arrived at the $459 million in lost revenue estimate.  Whether you agree with their reasoning or not, the numbers are impressive.

Reports like this raise the question of what’s the best way to monetize mobile apps in the first place- via in-app advertising or the traditional one-time cost model.  Utilizing a one-time cost structure makes you as a developer vulnerable to piracy and the subsequent lost of revenue it brings, but maintaining an in-app monetization model via relevant advertising takes most, if not all of the risk away.  As the problem of piracy grows larger, we’ll undoubtedly see a shift to in-app advertising, which has always seemed to make more sense in the first place.

2010 could be the year of the mobile phone hack attack. That’s according to Roel Schouwenberg, a senior malware researcher at Kaspersky Lab Americas. Schouwenberg is making the media rounds this final week of 2009 to present his theory that Google Wave, the iPhone and Android could sustain heavy cyber attacks throughout 2010.

Although Schouwenberg stopped short of blaming unethical mobile marketers for opening the flood gates for some of the issues he raises, Schouwenberg makes it clear that there’s plenty of blame to go around for the vulnerabilities that could be exploited next year.

“The first malicious programs for these mobile platforms appeared in 2009,” says Schouwenberg, “a sure sign that they have aroused the interest of cybercriminals.”

Schouwenberg believes that Google Wave could very well experience the bulk of attention from cyber criminals who will serve up attacks that follow a somewhat predictable pattern: “First, the sending of spam, followed by phishing attacks, then the exploiting of vulnerabilities and the spreading of malware.”

Although software security has become a multi-billion industry, there are more malicious threats facing PCs and mobile devices now than ever. And, regrettably, if Roel Schouwenberg’s predictions ring true in the new year, 2010 will bring with it many attempted security threats – no shortage of which could prove successful in causing the chaos they seek to engender.