SEATTLE - Starbucks announced yesterday a mobile payment system available in all U.S. stores for BlackBerry and Apple iOS users, Bloomberg reports.
After downloading the Starbucks Card Mobile App from the Starbucks website, users load money onto the app (or link an existing Starbucks card) to enable the payment function. Once in a Starbucks store, users then hold their smartphone in front of a countertop scanner, which reads the on-screen barcode to record the purchase. Within seconds (this writer reports the process worked seamlessly earlier this morning), the app is updated to reflect the remaining balance.
While the Starbucks Card Mobile App launched last year, it initially allowed users to just review their card balance, reload the card, and view transactions. The company began a payment test in Seattle, Northern California, New York, and Target stores before expanding it nationwide yesterday.
"Today, one in five Starbucks transactions is made using a Starbucks Card and mobile payment will extend the way our customers experience and use their Starbucks Card," said. Brady Brewer, vice president of Starbucks Card and Brand Loyalty.
Last year, Starbucks customers loaded $1.5 billion onto their cards, a 21 percent increase from 2008.
In a related story, CNN Money reports on the growing popularity of "mobile currency," whereby customers use their mobile phones in place of cash or credit cards.
"There€™s a lot of money at stake if it€™s done right," said Omar Green, director of strategic mobile initiatives at Intuit.
According to research firm Generator Research, mobile payments are expected to reach $633 billion annually by 2014, with nearly half a billion customers using their phones to make payments.
Last November, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile launched a joint mobile commerce network called Isis that is expected to be operational within 18 months. The service will use Discovery Financial Services, not Visa or MasterCard, as its financial services partner.
Not to be outdone, Visa, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are also working on smartphone payment technologies.
An emerging "game-changer" in mobile payments is "Near Field Communication" (NFC), which enables the exchange of data over short distances. With an NFC chip in a smartphone, an NFC reader records a purchase without having to scan a bar code. Google has already committed to the technology, with its CEO saying its next version of Google Android would include the tap-and-pay functionality.
To learn more about mobile payments and how this technology will affect the industry, be sure to attend NACStech, May 16 to 18 in Las Vegas. Register now!