Starbucks and Apple have joined forces to offer free iOS apps to customers.
Coffee drinkers visiting the shop have been able to download free songs from iTunes for a number of years now as part of the popular Pick of the Week program organized by the two companies.
A Cnet report says that visitors to Starbucks can now grab a Pick of the Week app card at the cash register. On the back is a code that the customer needs to enter to begin downloading the free app.
Up first is Shazam Encore, a music identifying service. This app would ordinarily set you back $5.99, so if it’s one not already in your collection, it might appeal. The free songs offered in the Pick of the Week music program are worth up to $1.29 a time, so on the face of it the app offer looks like a pretty sweet deal.
The fact that the free offer is available to iOS users only may leave some of those with Android-equipped devices feeling a little envious. Then again, you might have already picked up Shazam Encore for nothing when it was offered in the Amazon app store as a Free App of the Day back in March.
It’s not currently clear whether the free apps being offered at Starbucks will replace or run alongside the offer of free music tracks.
What about Android users? Don’t they drink coffee too? I am started a petition for the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to give out free Android apps! (http://goo.gl/dm5T2)
This is great, but when are they going to figure out how to just put a QR or bar code on the back instead of having me enter that 72 digit code every time? Come on Apple-Bucks, get with the program!