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Starbucks Debuts Duracell Powermat Wireless Charging Stations in Boston

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News Posted: Tue, Oct 30 2012 12:59 PM
As if you needed another reason to camp out at Starbucks and write your novel or do homework dink around on Facebook, the coffee chain is rolling out a trial of Duracell Powermat wireless charging stations in 17 Boston-area stores.

"We're building the Powermat technology into some of the tabletops, just to get a sense for how our customers will react, compared to having to plug their mobile devices into the wall”, Starbucks chief digital officer Adam Brotman told Boston.com.

Wireless charging

If you don’t have a device or accessory that enables wireless charging, Starbucks will have a few to loan out, and may even do some in-store giveaways.

The trial will run through the holidays, and if Starbucks and Duracell like how things go, wider rollouts may occur early next year.
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3vi1 replied on Tue, Oct 30 2012 1:39 PM

Looks pretty wasteful. More people would be happy, and it would be more energy efficient, if they just had a couple of cables with common connectors for charging. I would much rather have a cable and be able to hold my phone up at an angle while it's charging than get my face irradiated by one of these power mats.

Then again, I use a Blackberry, so I'm probably not someone who should be making these decisions.

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Angel S. replied on Wed, Oct 31 2012 3:01 AM

what device today even sports the needed hardware built in to enable this? -_-

this is such old technology that should have been pushed out MUCH sooner.

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el_bloggo replied on Fri, Nov 2 2012 7:45 PM

Here's a map of the locations where the testing has or will be rolled out: http://bitly.com/Ub8ePI

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realneil replied on Sat, Nov 3 2012 8:08 PM

The trouble with them is that they'll be using power 24/7 no matter if anything is plugged into them. It's a waste.

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