Conway said Amazon’s payment system will be integrated into all of Handmark’s 50-or-so mobile storefronts around the world, including stores on the Windows Mobile and BlackBerry platforms. “It will be out almost instantly,” he said. Handmark already has a number of payment solutions, including carrier billing, credit cards and PayPal. But the big hurdle for consumers is often convenience. If it’s not easy, they move on. Carrier billing is presumed to be the best solution because users never have to enter any information to make a purchase. Conway said with Amazon’s payment solution, users will enter their Amazon username and password and then enable one-click purchasing after that. “This will bring in a whole group of folks who have their credit card on file with Amazon to have a seamless approach.”

However, Amazon is not the only one competing for this market. When you look at the players that have access to consumer credit in mobile, it’s not just the carriers. PayPal has also signed a partnership with Research In Motion to power the billing platform for BlackBerry’s App World. It’s not clear which provider has the biggest reach. Recently, Apple’s Steve Jobs said iTunes has 100 million credit cards on file. PayPal has about 68.6 million registered active accounts, according to a 2008 SEC document, and Amazon declined to discuss how many users’ credit cards it had on file. Others vying for this space include Google’s Checkout.

To be sure, the opportunity is large. Whichever company is able to crack the market first, it will not only get a cut of mobile purchases, but may lead to more business down the road. Virtual goods is only the beginning. Next may be buying physical goods at the point of purchase, which has yet to take off in the U.S.