What is the business driver behind Starbucks' logo change?

Recently there have been multiple occurrences of people mentioning the Starbucks logo change to me.

First...was my wife who mentioned in to me. Usually when she mentions something marketing related it must have hit some mainstream channel for her to be aware and comment on it to me.

Second...was a blog post about this change (can't remember which blog, or I would give them credit). From this blog I clicked over to watch the Schultz video discussing why Starbucks felt it was time to update the logo (see here).

After watching the video by Howard Schultz, I was again reminded about my struggles with Corporate Brand teams who have the tough job of aligning the Brand with the look and feel of designs.  I think branding is very important but am confused by how the change of the Starbucks logo has much positive impact on the Starbucks business.

To me...it seems like Starbucks may have felt they needed to change something and removing the name from their logo would move them forward into a new league.

Like many other companies who have updated their logos recently, it looks to me like Starbucks has received a lot of negative feedback about this change.  I'm thinking most people, me included, feel that there isn't really a need for this change, there are very few people who want to see changes with the brands they love.

Am I missing something?  Is there an obvious up side to this change that I am missing?