Starbucks To Offer No-Frills Mobile Payments With Square

Cash can be oh-so-cumbersome when it comes to paying for coffee.  Starbucks knows this, that's why they've introduced consumers to Starbucks cards and phone payments. Now, the green mermaid has paired up with Square, a mobile payments start-up company, to revolutionize the ways Americans pay for their Frappuccinos.

While Starbucks has always tried to stay at the forefront of cutting edge payment methods, this may be one of its most progressive projects to date. Last year, Starbucks introduced its own app that enabled mobile payments, which averages over one million transactions per week. The current app requires customers to sign a receipt for their drink, but this new app will eventually forgo the signing step for a completely paperless transaction.

The square app will use GPS technology so the customer's phone will send a message to the store that the customer has entered, sending his name and photo to the cash register's screen. All you'll have to do is tell the cashier your name and have them confirm that you match your photo. That's a pretty smart phone.

A handful of small businesses already use Square, but the company hopes that the deal with Starbucks will allow them to change the way America conducts business.  Currently, only 30 percent of smartphone-owning Americans say they'd be interested in using mobile payments to buy a latte, but that  number might swell as Starbucks adopts this technology.  While there will be people eager to embrace this new technology, many will likely be put off by safety concerns or the simple fact that using a credit card, debit card or even cash to make a payment isn't an inconvenience.