Here's one for the coffee lovers; Starbucks has rolled out its 'Starbucks Card Mobile App' for BlackBerry today.
The Starbucks Card Mobile app made its first appearance on the iPhone and iPod touch last year. The app enables users to reload their Starbucks payment cards, monitor their rewards cards and even pay for their purchases at what started as 16 stores in Seattle and the Silicon Valley region. In June, the coffee company then extended its mobile payment system to 1,000 stores.
The app has now been transferred over to the BlackBerry App world. But rather than simply put an iPhone app onto a BB handset, Starbucks tweaked the app in order to fit in with the BlackBerry UI. The app for BlackBerry Bold, Curve, Storm and Tour users comes with a new store locator app to identify 'all Starbucks and venues where Starbucks is sold.'
Chuck Davidson, the category manager for innovation on the Starbucks Card team, described the group's efforts to optimize the app experience for BlackBerry users. "We didn't just want to put an iPhone app on a BlackBerry, which would have shocked BlackBerry users," Davidson explained. "We had to get inside a BlackBerry head and use the right workflow."
There's no word on an Android app, though it seems likely that one will make any appearance at some point. If they keep following the pattern so far than we'll see one rolled out next September which would give them a year to develop it and for Android to continue its impressive growth.
There's a UK version of the iPhone app so we should soon see a UK version for BlackBerrys.
It's not the first app we've seen from a store/chain. These apps are getting more and more common and are a good way to keep track of loyalty points, find stores etc.
So what store would you like to see release an app?
Source: mashable