Starbucks for Android is an application that will allow owners of Google Android 2.1 and newer handsets to pay for coffee and other goods from their mobile phone.
Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) June 15 introduced an Android
application that lets users pay for coffee and other treats from the java chain
via their Android smartphones.
Starbucks for Android lets consumers pay for brew and
food from their phones at nearly 6,800 Starbucks stores, more than 1,000 Target
stores, and close to 1,000 Starbucks stores in Safeway in the U.S.
The app is available
free now in the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Market for handsets running
Android 2.1 and later versions.
Users will download the app, enter their Starbucks card
number and check out by letting Starbucks attendants user a 2-D scanner to read
the app's card number on their phone. Users can also use the app to manage and
reload their card account, check their Starbucks rewards status and find Starbucks
stores nearby.
"With the addition of Starbucks for Android to the
Starbucks app line-up, a Starbucks mobile payment app may now be used on
approximately 90 percent of smartphones currently in use,"
said Adam Brotman,
vice president and general manager of digital ventures at Starbucks Coffee
Company.
Starbucks for Android follows the popular Starbucks for Apple's
(NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and RIM (TSE:RIM) Blackberry apps the coffee maker
launched last January.
iPhone and iPod touch users, as well as owners of RIM's BlackBerry
Tour, Curve or Storm smartphones already pay for their coffee, pastries and
other goodies at Starbuck's standalone and Target Starbuck's locations.
While Starbuck's has enjoyed success with its iPhone mobile payment app,
mobile payments remain a niche use case for most consumers accustomed
to paying for goods by cash, debit, credit or gift cards. Starbuck's and several high-tech companies hope to change that.
The Starbuck's for Android app comes as Google is
preparing to
launch its Google Wallet mobile payment app in New York and San Francisco.
Wallet will let consumers pay for goods by tapping their
phones against payment terminals leveraging the near field communications
short-range wireless technology.
Wallet will support Citi MasterCard and a
Google Prepaid Card, allowing users to pay wherever MasterCard's PayPass
mobile-payment service is accepted.
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