Given that it's hard enough to figure out how to change ring tones on most phones, you can imagine that not too many mobile subscribers have been shopping via cellphone.

PayPal is set to change that, five years after eBay scooped them up in 2002. FierceMobileContent is reporting that the venerable online payment service just launched PayPal Mobile Checkout, a service enabling consumers in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada to make purchases via the mobile Web.

This actually isn't PayPal's first foray into mobile shopping. Last year, they launched PayPal Mobile, a text-based service that let users text "PayPal" (729725) and enter the dollar amount they want to send to a particular vendor, charity or user ID number.

This time around, PayPal Mobile Checkout enables merchants with online storefronts to embed PayPal buttons on their sites. Providing that these merchants can figure out how to design easy-to-use mobile Web sites, the new button promises a simpler, more efficient interface, FierceMobileContent reports.

Early participating merchants include SkyMall, ElectronicsShowplace.com, DVD Empire and DVD Planet. Anyone who gets excited at the prospect of new DVDs coming out every Tuesday now has another outlet for their addiction.

PayPal rings up Mobile Checkout [FierceMobileContent]