• February 14, 2011

While cautioning that it is still very much in the nascent development stages, Starbucks has confirmed that it is working on creating a breakthrough offering in the single-serve coffee sector.

Starbucks hopes to accomplish with single-serve coffee "what Apple did for mobile phones," spokeswoman Lara Wyss told the Chicago Tribune. 

The company is still determining whether it will make machines itself and which companies it might partner with, but sees its ability to sell and promote such a machine/single-serve system in its retail outlets as giving it a unique competitive advantage, Wyss said.

The fast-growing single-serve market represents a major opportunity not only for Starbucks, but for Kraft. Starbucks' decade-long contract with Kraft for retail distribution of Starbucks' packaged coffees expires within a few weeks.