There’s no doubt that mobile apps have proved to be a runaway success, early in July Apple announced 15 billion downloads since it first opened the App Store in 2008 and Google is hot on its heels. But what yardstick should we use to really quantify this growth? As it’s silly season, software firm Sybase 365 chose hamburgers.

While mCommerce implementations are relatively new, successes such as Safaricom in Kenya, paybox in Austria, Compass Bank in the United States, mpass in Germany and others provide a solid set of lessons learned for mobile operators, enterprises and financial institutions.

There are several fundamental financial transaction issues faced by 100′s of millions of adults in Africa on a daily basis, ranging from the ordering and payment of goods and services, to the challenges of traditional banking, bill/tax payments, salary withdrawals and international remittances.