How much does this same problem exist outside of Manhattan? I've had difficulty getting reservations in other major cities, but nowhere near as much as in NYC.
On the surface yes, but Ingress is strategically brilliant on many levels. Well executed, this could make Android the 'cool' OS to have on your phone. This is a great strategy to build the Android brand and sustain their unit volume domination.
Great points about how groupthink can limit creativity, but I suspect it can also impede execution which may be even more important. As good as lean startup is, it certainly causes many to groupthink the best execution strategy. This may increase competition for ideas well suited for it, and prematurely kill (or pivot away from) ideas best pursued with a different approach.
This is really cool, nice work. That said, many of the problems I've experienced have more to do with weird behavior in the OEM code (i.e. TouchWiz) than core android stuff. It would be beyond awesome if there was a way to launch OEM versions by simply entering the model number of the device.
The largest retailers can negotiate the processing (merchant acquiring fees), but not the interchange. Components of CC fees are interchange (which goes to card issuing banks), processing (which goes to the merchant's bank), and association fees (which is how visa/mc/etc make their money). Interchange & association fees are fixed, processing is the most negotiable. That said, any >$1B retailer is paying too much if they pay more than a penny/transaction in processing, so there's not much room for improvement because there are real costs in that activity.
I think there are two big reasons why they would do this:
1. Investment
They will likely make a multiple of the $25M when Square IPO's. The best possible evidence of Square's traction is what Starbucks just provided. Smart investment
2. Focus on core competency
World class payment processing is not a significant source of competitive advantage for Starbucks, but it is for Square. This deal allows Square to worry about payment acceptance & processing efficiency, and Starbucks to focus on product/service. Michael Porter would be proud of this deal.