New application could be a step toward Starbucks expanding the availability of its mobile commerce technology

Starbucks has released a new application for the iOS platform that could serve as a stepping stone for the company’s future mobile commerce endeavors. The company has become a major player in the mobile commerce sector thanks to its partnership with payments processor Square. Currently, Starbucks in the mobile commerce space are restricted to its family of stores, but the company does have plans to expand beyond its own stores in the future, possibly licensing off its mobile payments technology.

App allows users to tip baristas from their mobile device

The application allows consumers to tip their baristas at Starbucks stores from a mobile device. The app is meant to work alongside Starbucks’ existing mobile commerce services, allowing consumers more flexibility in the way they interact with the company and its employees. According to Starbucks, approximately 14% of all of its in-store transactions now come from mobile devices. The company has been quick to praise mobile commerce and has begun taking steps to help other organizations embrace the mobile sector more effectively.

Security continues to be an issue for many consumers

While Starbucks have found significant success in its mobile commerce efforts, many consumers are still wary of the concept of mobile payments. There are security issues that exist in the mobile field that have yet to be adequately addressed by companies participating therein. The security of financial information is a priority for many consumers, and the lack of security that many mobile commerce platforms offer has become a problematic issue for consumers.

Starbucks could help assuage security issues in the mobile commerce field with its mobile payments technology

Starbucks has managed to provide a service that consumers feel comfortable with using. The company may be able to help address some of the security issues that exist in the mobile commerce field by making its own mobile payments technology more available to other companies. Starbucks currently has tentative plans to license out its technology, but exactly when this will happen is unclear at this time.

Companies are now expected to spend nearly double, this year, what they did last year.

According to the results of a recent study, global mobile ad spending is rising extremely quickly, as it had reached $17.96 billion in 2013, having more than doubled since the year before, and now it is expected to nearly double once again this year.

The growth in 2014 should reach about 75 percent, to bring itself to a worldwide total of 431.5 billion.

The mobile ad spend total for this year represents about a quarter of all of the spending that has occurred on digital advertising. The two companies that will be benefiting the most as a result of this growing spending are Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. Last year, those two companies took in over two thirds of the amount of money that was spent on mobile marketing ads.

The mobile ad budget and spending data for the report was assembled by Millennial Media Inc.

That company offers data analysis for advertisers to help to provide valuable insight and shed some light on industry trends. The report helps to better understand the goals of advertisers based on the spending for the channel that occurred last year, compared it to the year before, and made predictions for this year. The data regarding ad spending had been published last week by eMarketer.

Millennial Media reported that the leading five vertical markets in terms of spending over the mobile channel for advertising, last year were: entertainment, retail, telecommunications, finance, and computer goods, in that order. When compared to the year before, entertainment and retail switched places, and automotive spending’s position was taken by consumer goods.

The consumer goods mobile spending has grown by 134 percent in 2014 alone. However, the largest increase that was seen year over year was in sports advertising. That sector increased the amount that it was pouring into ads by almost 500 percent. One of the trends that increased by the largest amount in terms of popularity and spending was rich media and video ads, which managed to increase 350 percent in the auto advertising sector when compared to banner ads.