By the end of January, it was reported that the number of “select stores” was expanding… to all of them.

Today, Mobile Marketing Watch has learned that PayPal has begun rolling out in-store checkout systems at every Home Depot store in the Bay Area.

As of early 2012, roughly 17 million of PayPal’s 106 million account holders have already linked their accounts to a mobile device.

Renato Mascardo, of San Ramon, California, tells Mercury News that he tried the service at a local Home Depot store and now raves about the experience, particularly with how convenient it makes shopping with his little ones in tow.

“It’s super convenient for me not to have to take my wallet out. It seems like a little thing, but when you have a 2-year-old in your arms and a 5-year-old (in the store) it’s pretty convenient,” Mascardo says.

If you’re unfamiliar with PayPhrase, Amazon had previously launched the program as a means for further simplifying the online shopping experience.

Not yet three years old, PayPhrase allowed shoppers to check out by simply using a personal phrase followed by a four-digit pin.

Amazon says on its website that the time has come to move on from PayPhrase.

“Since launching PayPhrase, we’ve learned a great deal about how our customers like to check out,” Amazon says. “We’ve applied many of these lessons to other features on Amazon.com.”

For now, Amazon says shopping through its digital portal can still be efficient and expedient thanks to the 1-Click checkout option, which utilizes previously stored payment and shopping details to facilitate as swift purchase.

Were you a fan of PayPhrase? If so, will you be sorry to see it go? Please weigh in with a thought or comment below.

According to Shopify, the reason for the acquisition is to help the company carry out an aggressive mobile growth strategy.

The acquisition marks Shopify’s first major investment since raising $15 million in Series B funding last October.

Having helped to build some of today’s biggest online stores, Shopify can presently boast of 20,000 active online stores in 80 different countries.

“After seeing a massive increase in mobile transactions at Shopify, we believe there is great demand and opportunity for mcommerce,” said Tobias Lutke, founder and CEO of Shopify. “The S3 acquisition brings in top talent that will rapidly deliver on our mobile strategy, and produce several new mobile product offerings this year.”

Shopify says Tariq Zaid, co-founder and CEO of S3, will join Shopify with his team of over 20 mobile engineers and designers.

“We’re thrilled to be joining Shopify to execute on the company’s mobile initiative,” Zaid said. “Their focus on mobile, deep understanding of technology, and overall culture make this a natural fit. We’re already cooking up some really exciting innovations that show just how game changing mcommerce will be.”

The trial testing allows shoppers to purchase items at checkout either directly through their mobile device or through a special PayPal card.

On Monday, it was reported that the number of “select stores” is expanding… to all of them.

PayPal says it will expand trials of the new mobile wallet services to well over 2,000 Home Depot stores in the United States.

“Home Depot is the first retailer to roll out a limited pilot program for our new POS technologies,” admitted PayPal director of communications Anuj Nayar on the PayPal Blog earlier this month. “We frequently run trials with our retail partners. The Home Depot pilot is currently being run in five stores and involves a small number of PayPal employees.”

With a 100-million strong user base, the chances for PayPal’s success at Home Depot are certainly more favorable than not.

Today, that trend continues, as ViVOtech – the near field communication (NFC) software and systems company – raised the curtain on ViVOtouch, a mobile marketing software platform.

According to details provided in the announcement, the platorm in question “enables retailers to deliver personalized content, offers and loyalty programs to customers, while enabling interactive shopping experiences with NFC-enabled mobile devices – all in real-time.”

With ViVOtouch, merchants, mall operators, coupon issuers and service providers are able to instantly deliver customized content to shoppers’ mobile devices based on their profile, location and interests.

Consumers have the ability to “check in” with a simple tap or wave of their NFC device at the entrance of a store or mall, prompting a merchant’s current promotions, offers and rewards to be sent directly to their device.

ViVOtouch can also be triggered using QR code scan, SMS short code, cellular or Wi-Fi triangulation or website-initiated opt-in.

“ViVOtouch gives merchants a powerful marketing tool to influence their customers in real time, provide tailored and targeted campaigns as well as gather powerful insights about shopping behavior that is simply unavailable through legacy point-of-sale systems,” says Mohammad Khan, president of ViVOtech. “With ViVOtouch, consumers can tap their phone on a shelf tag to instantly retrieve product information, personalized offers and user product ratings for an informed shopping decision, which simultaneously provides shopper insights to the retailer.”

According to the latest insight provided by research firm ForeSee, Apple’s mobile shopping satisfaction score puts the Cupertino, California-based tech giant on the top tier of players in mCommerce.

An impressive 85% of 3,000 consumers surveyed rank Apple at the top of their favorite companies to shop from online. Incredibly, Apple’s mobile shopping score was even higher than consumers’ overall satisfaction with Apple’s web store, which has an 83% approval rating.

“As the adoption of smartphones increases, more consumers are using them to access retailer websites,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee. “More and more, there is expectation that companies will address the mobile environment in ways that are effective and user-friendly. Mobile commerce is still relatively new and there is a lot of room for
innovation and improvement.”

Based on the findings of the research, Apple topped Amazon, Dell, Netflix, and eBay among the top five providers of the most satisfying mCommerce experiences.

Donahoe revealed that eBay reached $5 billion in mobile GMV and PayPal reached $4 billion in mobile payment volume in 2011.

More than 890,000 new eBay shoppers made their first eBay purchase through the company’s mobile apps in 2011, a 113% increase year over year.

“EBay is continuing to drive the next generation of commerce in a new retail environment, where lines between online and offline commerce are blurring,” a statement from eBay read following the presentation.

Donahoe is projecting that in 2012, eBay will reach $8 billion in mobile GMV and PayPal will reach $7 billion in mobile TPV.

According to Millennial Media’s findings, mCommerce in November grew an impressive 64 percent month over-month as a Post-Click action.

Meanwhile, 68% of telecom campaigns utilized mCommerce as a Post-Click Campaign Action in November. As it turns out, telecom advertisers led other advertisers in leveraging mCommerce, allowing customers to purchase new devices, accessories, or service plans via their mobile devices.

Campaigns that used a store locator grew 47 percent month-over-month, and made up 33 percent of all the campaigns on our platform. Retail and Auto advertisers in particular used this to drive consumers into stores and dealerships.

60 percent of all campaigns on Millennial Media’s platform were set up to drive consumers to a mobile site (as opposed to a custom landing page or app download page). This was a 7 percent increase month-over-month.

To learn more or to obtain a copy of the November S.M.A.R.T. report, click here.

WalmartLabs, the upstart social and mobile product incubator at Wal-Mart, has acquired a company called Small Society.

A mobile-centric firm, Small Society is responsible for numerous highly iPhone applications for leading brands like Starbucks, Zipcar and Whole Foods.

While the terms of the deal weren’t initially made public, the outcome of the deal should soon be clear to Wal-Mart customers. Without a doubt, the mobile shopping experience will be getting a definitive boost in some fashion.

“We believe that mobile can have an impact on every part of the shopping experience for Walmart customers, whether in-store or online,” WalmartLabs chief Anand Rajaraman said. “We’re very excited to have such talented new team members to help us make that impact.”

Other 2011 WalmartLabs’ acquisitions included social ad network One Riot and mobile point-of-sale startup Gabble.

According to the latest estimates, the industry will see 37% growth by 2016, bringing the industry’s total value to $22.6 billion at that time.

“The popularity of smartphones and the increasing availability of mobile media that can include mobile advertising are the main game-changers,” said Rickard Andersson, telecom analyst at Berg Insight.

The mobile app revolution, however, has done as much to further the industry as smartphones have.

“Brands are now progressively embracing the mobile channel, including the entire range of apps, from games and entertainment to utility applications. Also, mobile Web advertising and opt-in SMS [Short Message Service] campaigns are popular,” Andersson adds.

Facebook is widely anticipated to emerge as one of the biggest future players in the mobile marketing and advertising realms.

“Many acquisitions have recently taken place within the mobile marketing industry, and further consolidation is expected to bring about an ecosystem consisting of a few dominant digital advertising networks spanning all types of devices,” the Berg report reads.