This month, Starbucks has announced to release in Japan, a new hardware product, a pen. The pen is not a stylus or anything of that sort but an actual pen that has coffee brown gel ink which is a design inspired by the drip coffee machine, also having the built-in ability of paying for things bought at Starbucks.
The name of this pen is “Starbucks Touch: The Pen,” and it contains an NFC reader which is linked to a digital wallet. It works with the FeliCa technology that is ubiquitous in Japan and is currently powering the popular domestic card system of Starbucks. It is not sure how this is better than the utilization of mobile phones for payments, but maybe leaving one’s phone at home to study at Starbucks could be a great idea.
This is basically the 4th product in the Starbucks Touch line based in Japan that also comprises of a phone case along with a flask. Quite recently, Starbucks has launched a very small NFC-equipped handbag which is called “The Hug” and was only made available by lottery in July for a few days.
The pen shall become slightly little more easily available because Starbucks has announced to put it on sale on Wednesday in its online store. There are 3 colors available, black, white and silver and each of them costs four thousand yen (~$37), including the one thousand yen pre-loaded.