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Buy a credit card reader and a latte at Starbucks

By | January 3, 2013, 2:50 PM PST

Customers lining up to pay for their easy foam lattes, passion teas and pastries at Starbucks stores in the U.S. can now buy a device designed by Square that allows your iPhone or Android device to accept credit card payments.

On Thursday, all 7,000 company-operated stores in the U.S. began selling Square Mobile Card Readers, a small device that plugs into the headphone jack of an iPhone, iPad or Android device, for $10.

The development is the next phase of a partnership inked back in August between Starbucks and Square, the San Francisco startup headed by Twitter inventor Jack Dorsey. The initial deal kicked in two months ago when Starbucks began accepting Square Wallet, a mobile payment app, at its U.S. stores. The coffee retailer also has invested $25 million in Square and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz joined the company’s board of directors.

Square’s Mobile Card Reader is already sold at more than 30,000 retail stores, including Apple, Target, Best Buy and Walmart.

Photo: Square

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Kirsten Korosec

About Kirsten Korosec

Kirsten Korosec is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Kirsten Korosec

Kirsten Korosec

Contributing Editor

Kirsten Korosec has written for Technology Review, Marketing News, The Hill, BNET and Bloomberg News. She holds a degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She is based in Tucson, Arizona.

Follow her on Twitter.

Kirsten Korosec

Kirsten Korosec

Kirsten does not have financial holdings that would influence how or what she covers.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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They are FREE at Square.com!
$10? Are you kidding me? Go directly to square.com and get it for free!
Posted by CLS9
Updated - 3rd Jan
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Why do I want one
I guess I don't get the connection between using my credit card to get something at Starbucks and buying a device so my phone can read my credit card.

If I could use my phone (as a credit card) at Starbucks or if Starbucks swiped my card on this device on their phone to pay for my purchase I could understand.

Help me understand why I want to pay $10 for one of these things and what I would use it for.
Posted by Willie11
15th Jan
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I am not sure....
I cannot say if this is good or bad. It's good that they are selling their card readers in Starbucks (best exposure), but it's bad that they don't just give their cards for free to their customers, there's no value-add to that. There are companies like mPowa (www. mpowa. com) who I believe give card readers for free. Though mPowa may not be as big as Square, but with their customer value add, I think they will go there.
Posted by SMO_margaux
21st Jan
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