Starbucks introduces wireless charging points in European branches

Coffee chain Starbucks is going to offer the possibility to charge phones wirelessly. The PMA standard is used for this purpose. Initially, only Starbucks stores in San Francisco are planned, but cities in Europe should follow next year.

Starbucks will use Duracell’s Powermat charging stations, which will be built into tables. As far as we know, the rollout will start immediately, but cities other than San Francisco will follow later. Then it will also be Starbucks’ turn in Europe, although it is not known in which cities that will be.

The Powermat charging points use the PMA standard. That’s a competitor to Qi, currently the most supported wireless charging standard. The Nexus 4 and 5, the LG G3 and Lumia phones, among others, only have support for Qi, and will therefore not be able to be charged in the Starbucks branches. For some phones, including the Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5S, a case can be purchased that makes the phone suitable for wireless charging.