Starbucks Corp.'s mobile payments app is finally available for Android smartphone users.
The Seattle company released its first official app on Google Inc.'s Android Market Tuesday night, nearly two years after rolling out a test of its mobile payments service initially available only to users of the Apple Inc. iPhone. The app lets customers pay for purchases by showing cashiers a bar code on the phone's screen.
The Android operating system now exceeds the market share of Apple and Research In Motion Ltd., which makes the BlackBerry.
Starbucks said it focused on iPhone and BlackBerry handsets first because there was higher demand for those platforms. But today the question customers ask the most is "When are you guys going to do an official Starbucks Android app?" Chuck Davidson, category manager for innovation on the Starbucks Card team, said Tuesday during a webcast with reporters and analysts.
A private developer created his own versions of the app early this year. Those unofficial apps have been downloaded more than 160,000 times.
Davidson said he could not discuss unofficial applications, but he touted the usability and security of Starbucks' official apps, stressing that they do not store users' card data on the handsets. With the addition of the Android app, 90% of Starbucks customers with smartphones will be able to make mobile payments, he said.
Starbucks began testing its service in select stores in fall 2009, expanding it to 1,000 Starbucks locations inside Target Corp. stores in April 2010. It added a BlackBerry app last fall, and expanded the service to about 6,800 corporate-owned stores nationwide through a commercial rollout in January. Starbucks is also adding mobile payment acceptance to its 1,000 stores located inside Safeway Inc. supermarkets this summer.
Starbucks developed the Android app with the operating system's characteristics in mind, Davidson said.
It didn't want to "crank out an iPhone version made for Android," he said. "We spent the time to actually do the Android version correctly using Android best practices."
Several users said in reviews posted to the Android Market that they were glad Starbucks had finally come out with an Android app. However, some users said they preferred My Coffee Card, the competing app made by Oregon developer Stewart Gateley, who told American Banker in May that he released his version because he was tired of waiting for Starbucks to release its own.
Gateley said in an email Wednesday that he would continue to distribute his app.
The official Starbucks app allows customers to load their Starbucks prepaid card accounts into a mobile app. After the cashier scans the bar code that the app generates, money is deducted from the prepaid account to fund the purchase.
All of Starbucks' mobile apps also lets users reload funds to the prepaid account and access details of their loyalty accounts.
Starbucks said in March that customers had used its apps to pay for more than 3 million transactions. Davidson said that an updated figure was not available but that the adoption rate is strong.
"Once they use it, they use it again," he said.
