Online retailer Amazon.com on Wednesday introduced TextBuyIt, a service that allows impulse buyers and others to purchase Amazon's products via text message.

The move makes Seattle-based Amazon one of the largest U.S.-based companies to offer customers the option of settling financial transactions entirely via their mobile phones.

The business of conducting financial activity via mobile phones has emerged rather slowly in the U.S. in part because of security concerns and the painstaking process of aligning the divergent needs of customers, bankers, and carriers.

But Amazon has taken the carrier and to some extent the bankers out of the equation by using text messaging rather than a carrier-blessed "on-deck" application, and a banking link to handle the product payments.

Amazon's customers interested in buying a book or DVD can text AMAZON (262966) with the name of the product, or a search term, or the product's ISBN or UPC code.

Amazon responds via text message with a list of choices. The customer then indicates the correct item. Amazon follows up with a phone call to nail down the details of the order and to confirm the identity of the buyer.

"We have a lot of customers who use text messaging extensively," said Heather Huntoon, spokeswoman for Amazon. "For customers who know what they want and like to use text messaging, TextBuyIt is incredibly simple, convenient, and handy."

Amazon's entry into the mobile payment market was welcomed by Carol Realini, CEO of Redwood City, California-based Obopay, a Qualcomm-backed service that allows consumers or businesses to transfer money via mobile phone.

"This validates our market and it will get even more merchants and others interested in offering consumers the ability to purchase on the go," Ms. Realini said.

Despite the growing sophistication of mobile phones and the emergence of the mobile web, large banks and retailers in the U.S. have been reluctant to adopt mobile banking and mobile payments.

But Ms. Realini believes that those attitudes are changing, in part due to changing attitudes among consumers.

"We have seen a lot of interest in mobile payments from all age groups," she said. "There are some people who need convincing around safety, but there is a whole lifestyle that has developed around mobile phones and mobile commerce is part of that."