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After a limpid reception in the US of PayPal's "Text2Buy" and "Text2Give" features, eBay has launched PayPal Mobile Checkout, a platform more closely mirroring the Web version.

"EBay DevCon: PayPal Goes Mobile"

Damon Williams, program manager for PayPal Developer Network, spoke about the mobile payment service at the eBay Developers Conference in Boston today.

Launched in 2006, the text-based purchasing and donation offerings were more readily accepted over seas in Europe and Asia, where mobile phone-based services and applications are used more in general.

In the States, we don't much like having to type everything with our thumbs.

This new service allows m-commerce (mobile commerce) retailers to sell directly on any compatible mobile device in way that resembles the checkout flow as it is online. Or, as the average consumer will notice, it's not text messaging.

For example, said Williams, a customer can use PayPal Mobile Checkout to purchase movie tickets. All that is required is a log-in via the mobile number and a personal identification number (PIN) to buy the tickets ahead of time without ever actually entering the theater.

"Three clicks and a PIN number and that's all it takes to buy them," he said.

On his blog, Williams explains further:

There are two API calls involved in PayPal Mobile Checkout. SetMobileCheckout works similar to SetExpressCheckout – it initiates a mobile checkout transaction. DoMobileCheckout completes the transaction, and is comparable to DoExpressCheckoutPayment. We’ve updated the Integration Center with details for developers on how the APIs and the checkout process works. 

Your next question was about security, wasn't it? At the PayPal Integration Center Williams mentioned, it says that Mobile Checkout is designed to support most phones from major carriers that can make secure mobile web connections.

To connect, the device, carrier and browser must support:

·    WAP 2.0 phones (not WAP 1.0)
·    xHTML or HTML markup language
·    SSL connections
·    Cookies enabled
·    No carrier "WAP gap"