Coffee chain Starbucks is launching what it claims is the first iPhone payments app for the UK high street – saying it was not prepared to wait for NFC-based contactless payments to become mainstream.

Marketing Week reports that customers with registered Starbucks Reward Cards will be able to make purchases in all 700 UK Starbucks stores using the 'one-click' App Store app beginning in January. It is also developing an Android version of the app that it hopes to launch at the start of next year.

The coffee chain said it “did not want to wait” for NFC technology. “There’s no doubt that mobile payments are going to be the future of shopping, but it’s not clear how it’s going to develop,” said Brian Waring, VP of marketing and category for Starbucks UK. "We just didn’t want to wait. Ours is so simple and it enhances the whole experience for customers."

He adds that it not only speeds up the purchases for customers using the app by shaving 10 seconds off the transaction time, but speeds up the queuing process for other customers.

The chain launched the app in the US early this year and claims 20 million payments have been made to date using the technology across its 6,800 US stores.