Starbucks mobilizes Pick of the Week, gives away Angry Birds Star Wars
Skip those printed iTunes cards and pick up the Starbucks app instead, as the coffee company is finally serving up app and book downloads in a less old-fashioned way, CNET has learned.
The announcement makes the retailer's Pick of the Week program, initially launched in 2008 to provide customers with digital content freebies, more accessible to people on mobile devices.
In 2011, Starbucks started offering paid content from Apple's App Store and iBookstore, but only through printed cards with codes for redemption that people had to pick up in stores. In the fall of 2012, it began offering free song downloads through the Starbucks iOS app.
Now, starting tomorrow, Starbucks customers wishing to download the company's curated mobile app and e-book selections can do so with just a click, no card required, from the inbox of the Starbucks mobile application on iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, or by accessing the Starbucks Digital Network, the company's free in-store W-Fi network.
Starbucks is celebrating the expansion of the program with a free iTunes download of Angry Birds Star Wars, the popular Rovio title that launches the app maker's Angry Birds franchise into a galaxy far, far away.
"This expansion, of adding apps and books, is the reflection of Starbucks and Apple working together to strengthen the relationship for customers," Starbucks Chief Digital Officer Adam Brotman said. "This is another step in the direction that we're going to integrate more things into our mobile application."
The company's mobile application has more than 10 million active users across Android and iPhone, and sees 100,000 downloads each week, Brotman said.
The application's most famous functionality is Starbucks mobile pay, a mobile payment option that connects to the coffee company's rewards program and lets customers scan a digital copy of their Starbucks card to pay for their purchases. Starbucks says it processes more than 3 million mobile payment transactions per week, and has processed more than 100 million mobile pay transactions since the program launched in 2011.