Starbucks Begins Nationwide Rollout of Wireless Chargers in Coffee Shops

We have to agree with Chief Digital Officer of Starbucks Adam Brotman on this one – hunting around for an outlet for your phone charger at the café can be a bit of a chore. That’s why the coffee shop giant will begin to use Duracell chargers as “Powermat Spots” within Starbucks and Teavana shops to let you wirelessly charge your devices.

The rollout will begin slowly – only Boston and San Jose offer Powermat charging today – but Starbucks has plans to expand the initiative nationwide in 2015. Stores in the San Francisco Bay area will see it sooner. 

Unfortunately for most of us, Powermat uses the PMA standard for wireless charging rather than Qi. Most phones today with built-in wireless charging are Qi-compatible, not PMA compatible. So the only way you will be able to take advantage of these Powermat Spots, is to either buy a separate PMA-ready case to put on your phone, or buy soon-to-be-released “ring” receivers that can be plugged into your micro USB port.

If you’re so inclined, you can track the rollout at www.powermat.com/locations.

Via: Starbucks