jillions or millions of people?

As a loyal Starbucks customer and rabid WiFi user, I'm going to take you to task on a couple of items:

1. No where will you find Starbucks referring to this as being 'free'. It's complimentary. LIke the car wash an auto dealer gives you when you buy a car. Or the toothbrush the dentist gives you after a checkup. Nobody complains about that, so why take them to task on it? It's not like the money is going in their pocket - it's a pass-through. And, perhaps if Tully's would have thought of doing similar, maybe they could have been profitable enough to have the IPO they've been dreaming about for so long.

2. I don't agree that this deal will bring in new customers or entice patrons to try new services. It's all about perception: if you already use WiFi at St.Arbucks, this isn't going to change your life. If you don't, it's an added benefit, but you were already there right? And, if I already go someplace else, 2hrs of comped internet time is probably not going to change my cafe preference.

And lastly, is buying $5 every thirty days such a big deal? Really?

Peace

Barista Joe's points are well taken, but I've got three coffee houses within a 10 minute drive that offer truly free WiFi that you don't have to sign up for. No strings, no marketing.

Brier's correct that there's no huge privacy crisis here... but to go somewhere else where WiFi is free, unlimited, and effortless, and where the tables are bigger in the first place -- that's a no-brainer. Starbucks has a long way to go here.

I would argue that it's not free b/c inevitably all those Starbucks cards will end up with some money on them.

http://socialmediabutterfly.com/why-starbucks-free-wifi-isnt-really-free

actually Google is WORSE. With Google you give up privacy on the searches that you do for that session AND EVERY SESSION THEREAFTER. Between their ownership of banner ads (DoubleClick) and publishin ads (AdSense) they can track all of your explorations on the web in ADDITION to search terms.

And yes your search results are different than mine. They track location, time of search, content of search, etc...

And they have 60%+ share in US, 90%+ share in the UK. That should worry you a LOT.

Thanks for the comments and feedback.

Barista Joe, I'd argue that Starbucks is giving customers the impression that the wireless access is free, even if it doesn't use that exact term. Its descriptions say wireless is "complimentary" which sounds like free. Its tagline at Starbucks.com also says "Wi-Fi is on the house."

If they said coffee was complimentary and on the house, would you assume it was free?

Why all the strings? I don't get it. They go to all this trouble and expense to offer "free" wi-fi and compete with the independents, but then they put the two-hour limit on it and they want you to register and give up your info. Sorry, not me. I'll stick with my independents. The atmosphere at Starbucks sucks anyway and the coffee is mediocre.