13 years ago, AT&T ran a series of commercials demonstrating the future and declaring that they are the company to bring people there. While I’m not entirely sure if AT&T was the company that brought any of this, a lot of what they predicted have come to reality:

Online Books - While showing the picture of the physical book was probably for theatrical effects (a text file would be rather boring), the move from paper to digital have been relatively slow because no one wants to read 150 pages on a computer screen. It’ll be interesting to see if the new E-ink readers will be the tipping point for this phenomenon.

Car Navigation - This is practically dead on (except for the screen being more 3D than it is / needs to be). What does AT&T have to do with this though?

Wireless data transfer - Sure you can send a “fax” from the beach with wireless internet, but you’re most likely sending an e-mail instead. Tablet PCs has been a popular topic but only time will tell if it actually has any market traction.

E-ZPass - Very spot on, but by 1993, people were working on this already.

Buying tickets online - Sure you can buy tickets online, but no one will ever use an ATM to do so.

Video Phone - This keeps coming back and back since the early 60s but has failed to get any acceptance. The technology is there, the infrastructure is there, the products are there; I think we can safely say people don’t want it. On a side note, when was the last time you used a pay phone?

Voice Activated Doors - Biometrics is becoming a hot topic now for the car industry but I think it’s years away before people can accept the technology as secure.

Digital Medical History - To be honest, I don’t know anything about this (does it exist now?). However, I think there will be an online database instead of the patient bringing in the data themselves (problem with losing the card or people being able to hack their doctor approved health history).

Web Conferencing - Yep. Spot on. I’ve attended meetings with bare feet.

Video on demand - Also spot on. But since when did on demand movies start from the middle when you select it? (Yeah, yeah, theatrical effect)

Online Classes - This also is happening now, but where is this student taking the class?

I think they missed one big factor when they planned this future: Home PC. At 1993, they probably didn’t think computers will become so omnipresent (and connected) that people would be taking online classes, buying concert tickets, and reading online books from home. Another item that was peculiarly missing: cell phones. I wonder if they kept it out for political reasons (was AT&T not in the business then?) or they didn’t think it would be much more than just a mobile telephony tool.

So, if you were to make this commercial today, what would you put in it?

PS Stephen Colbert's take on AT&T.

Labels: future