AT&T 1993 "You Will" Ads

[MotionMan]

AT&T 1993 "You Will" Ads

Looks like they got a LOT of it right, except for the phone booth (the what?!), the voice activated locks (they exist, but not widely, yet) and the beach fax (now use e-mail).

(I totally remember these ads, too.)

MotionMan

 

[TridenT]

You will... stop posting!

Oh and me thinks that ur sig is a violation!

 

[slayer202]

pretty cool stuff

 

[SandEagle]

yup, i remember all of those commercials. i thought AT&T was dreaming if they could bring that s*** to fruition. oh how wrong I was.

 

[Ruptga]

Hey I remember this same thread being posted about a year ago

REPOST, LEARN TO SEARCH, BLAH BLAH BLAH

 

[FelixDeCat]

They were right on most counts, except the part about them bringing the technology to us. In fact, the original ATT was losing hundreds of millions of dollars to competitors, especially the Baby Bells. It was getting its clock cleaned because it was an uncompetitive dinosaur that got used to being able to overcharge for everything.

Until one day Texas based Southwestern Bell gobbled up other bells (Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell and Bell South) from the east coast to the west coast and finally bought the whole enchilada - ATT itself.

Capitalism. Gotta love it.

 

[Fox5]

Lol, I like how the beach fax machine was also a tablet pc, but they didn't even mention that.

 

[JS80]

wow...i remember those from grade school

 

[illusion88]

I don't remember those, but it's pretty neat!

 

[Anonemous]

lol at this comment:

AT&T: good at predicting the future, bad at giving me reception? on my cell phone

 

[T9D]

...

 

[Agentbolt]

Wow, I very very vaguely remember those. Video phones are kind of like robots and jet packs though, they've been promising them for decades now.

 

[rockyct]

Yeah, that is pretty accurate. Of course, AT&T didn't really do any of that. The internet did.

 

[Agentbolt]

Originally posted by: SandEagle
yup, i remember all of those commercials. i thought AT&T was dreaming if they could bring that s*** to fruition. oh how wrong I was.

To be fair, you were essentially correct. I'm pretty sure AT&T failed pretty hard at personally inventing any of those things

 

[CZroe]

LOL@fumbling with coffee and card swipes for paying a toll. Even a futurist from a decade or two earlier could've told you that that would not happen with a card swipe.

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: Agentbolt

Originally posted by: SandEagle
yup, i remember all of those commercials. i thought AT&T was dreaming if they could bring that s*** to fruition. oh how wrong I was.

To be fair, you were essentially correct. I'm pretty sure AT&T failed pretty hard at personally inventing any of those things

They broke off from NCR and NCR was directly responsible for much of it.

 

[Wreckem]

They didnt invent it but they played a pivotal role. Even back then when it was just AT&T(before Southwestern Bell bought everyone back), AT&T was one of the original tier 1 providers and were always a huge player in the backbone space.

They were predicting the future capabilities of the internet(and with it their backbone services).

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Agentbolt
Wow, I very very vaguely remember those. Video phones are kind of like robots and jet packs though, they've been promising them for decades now.

They're all waiting on the flying car.

 

[Pegun]

Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
Hey I remember this same thread being posted about a year ago

REPOST, LEARN TO SEARCH, BLAH BLAH BLAH

Link? I went back three pages and two years and couldn't find it.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: Agentbolt
Wow, I very very vaguely remember those. Video phones are kind of like robots and jet packs though, they've been promising them for decades now.

video over the internet on laptops is pretty easy, the n810 by nokia is a phone sized tablet pc with wifi and a video camera, and if the iphone or another smartphone with 3g had a camera mounted on the same side as the screen it would probably be doable on a 3g network, at least with a low res video.

 

[jonks]

Magnum PI (Prognosticator Incredible)

 

[SphinxnihpS]

lol, payphones!

 

[nageov3t]

hah. I can't even remember the last time I used a pay phone... though there are 2 within a block of my house.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: xSauronx

Originally posted by: Agentbolt
Wow, I very very vaguely remember those. Video phones are kind of like robots and jet packs though, they've been promising them for decades now.

video over the internet on laptops is pretty easy, the n810 by nokia is a phone sized tablet pc with wifi and a video camera, and if the iphone or another smartphone with 3g had a camera mounted on the same side as the screen it would probably be doable on a 3g network, at least with a low res video.

Old news man, been the norm for a couple of years outside the US.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: loki8481
hah. I can't even remember the last time I used a pay phone... though there are 2 within a block of my house.

I still see a lot of phone booths and phone stands, but almost none of them have phones in them.

I cannot recall the last time I used a public pay phone.

MotionMan