Starbucks wiped from Apple's site, but what does it mean?

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 8th 2008 at 11:10AM

Fresh off an extensive corporate ~~decaffeination~~ downsizing and a scaling back of its foray into music sales, it's a fair question to ask: just how ironclad is Starbucks' commitment to rolling out iTunes WiFi Music Store integration across its entire chain? We just happened to notice that the Starbucks page on Apple's site is now stone-cold gone, redirecting to the standard iTunes 8 stuff. You might say "no big deal, Apple's just playing down an agreement that's now been in place for a full year," but there's some other weirdness, too -- the company's iTunes WiFi Music Store at Starbucks FAQ, for example, still references the dead link. The partnership was kinda ill-conceived to begin with; getting access to the store meant hooking up to AT&T WiFi, which you wouldn't normally have configured unless you actually had an AT&T WiFi account. We haven't heard any official word here that the deal is in danger, but really, would anyone be welling up if it fell apart?

Filed under: Multimedia, Apple

Tags: apple, iphone, ipod touch, IpodTouch, itunes, itunes wifi music store, ItunesWifiMusicStore, music store, MusicStore, starbucks

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Neutral

Galen20K @ Oct 8th 2008 12:57PM

Ouch APple, just OUch!!! ;- )

BWahHAhaHAhahahaaaa

Neutral

greenlight @ Oct 8th 2008 1:22PM

The Starbucks thing was such a joke the whole time anyway, why didn't Apple just implement a Sony Ericsson-style TrackID thing (identifies the sound and gives you a link to purchase the song, in Sony Ericsson's case in DRM-free MP3)

Neutral

dyclement @ Oct 8th 2008 5:52PM

Was in a starbucks recently and couldn't connect to the Starbucks iTunes at ALL! lucky I have SHAZAM (free app) on my iPhone - snatched that song right outta the air and into my tagged music list - with links for youtube videos and back to iTunes to purchase. :)

Neutral

Craig @ Oct 8th 2008 8:03PM

Apple is just cutting the tow rope of a sinking ship. It's really not a surprise after Starbucks closed all it's stores here in Australia only last month. Why would Apple want to associate with a company who is going under.

Neutral

JayMonster @ Oct 10th 2008 10:08AM

Well, I didn't think it was a bad idea, just poorly implemented (and for me with the wrong people). Zune just cut a deal with Wayport/McDonald's with the latest iteration, and since ALL Zune's have built in Wi-Fi... well personally I wouldn't mind if the Starbuck's/iTunes deal became a Starbucks/Zune deal instead.

But of course, I am fairly sure I am alone on this one.

Neutral

Justin @ Oct 29th 2008 11:43PM

You're not! I love the iPhone, and I like Zune as well. The things is, the iPhone is more advanced than the Zune in almost all aspects, so unless Microsoft made a Zune Phone (Zphone, or something, which would be fucking awesome), I don't see it happening. Realize that at times Microsoft can be ignorant. A Zphone would naturally be iPhone's #1 competitor, besides maybe Blackberry's Storm.