Starbucks customers will soon be able to pay for their morning Latte by simply using their iPhone or iPod Touch.
From early 2012 customers at 7000 Starbucks stores across the UK will be able to simply hold their iPhone 4S up and 
scan the barcode as a method of payment.
Instead of being linked to your bank or Paypal, it’s instead linked to your Starbucks card, which you’ll need to have credit on.
The system has been in place since early 2011 in the USA across 6800 stores, with 20 million mobile payments already taken.
Starbucsk says that 20% of customers are now paying for coffee using cards, instead of cash and it has seen a rise of 70% in its pre-payment Starbucks card. Paying by app is even quicker, saving an average of 10-seconds per transaction.
Brian Waring, from Starbucks UK and Ireland comments: “Customers want to be served quickly, but fewer want to use cash. We wanted to find a way for them to pay in the quickest way possible.’
Interestingly the app doesn’t require the phone to have an NFC (near field communication) chip, which is only available in speciific handsets, instead Starbucks has created it’s own custom-built technology.
Starbucks mobile payments will begin on 5th Jan 2012 and is only available to iOS users. In order to use the payment system, you’ll need to have a registered Starbucks payment card, which you can link to the free app.
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