

Why Starbucks' iPhone app is probably not the future of mobile payments - fromedome
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-its-like-to-buy-a-starbucks-coffee-with-your-iphone-2010-11

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coffeenut
I agree with a couple of points in the article regarding scalability and
inconvenience.

However, there are a couple of points that aren't real blockers: 1) employees
handling your smartphone - In reality, the couple of times I've tried this, I
scan the phone myself; the barista never touches it. 2) typing in password
each time - Don't separately password the app. It's no less secure than a
physical card, and most folks already have a primary password to access their
smartphone anyway.

I do agree that it's more hassle than it's worth. I have a 3g iPhone which
doesn't support multi-tasking, but perhaps a multitasking smartphone would be
less painful to use (just keep the Starbucks app running in the background for
a quick switch). Not very scalable though.

The long delay to access apps is endemic to most smartphone apps today
(especially so in devices like the iPhone which doesn't support a
'dashboard'). This needs to change in the future to enable a whole slew of new
usage behaviors.

As far as scalability goes, hopefully an industry standard will emerge so that
a single app can manage a wallet of multiple virtual cards. Once you can go
from carrying a dozen loyalty cards to a single app, using a smartphone for
this functionality starts to make a lot more sense.

