*Yeah, well, at least it's trendy now.
"Starbucks Corp. (SBUX), famous for giving away Wi-Fi that links customers to the Internet, now wants to apply Web technology to its own operations by networking coffee makers, refrigerators and other appliances.
"Over the next year, Starbucks said it plans to double the number of its Clover coffee-brewing machines, which connect to the cloud and track customer preferences, allow recipes to be digitally updated and help staffers remotely monitor a coffee maker's performance. Also in the works: connected fridges that indicate when a carton of milk has spoiled.
"Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) – Andy Harrison, chief executive officer of Whitbread Plc, discusses the company's first-half profit reported today, growth strategy and the outlook for its Costa coffee shops and Premier Inn budget hotels. He speaks from London with Anna Edwards on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown."
" "We are investing in different technologies to make it easier for our baristas," Marianne Marck, a senior vice president for the Seattle-based company, said in an interview.
"Coffee shops, fast food joints and retailers are linking more of their operations to the Internet, aggregating information to help them better serve customers while also controlling everything from a store's temperature to the locks on its doors. The market for Web-connected devices, other than smartphones and computers, will triple to $27 billion by 2016, according to Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), which is heavily investing in the so-called Internet of Things...."
