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These are really good ads. I remember watching them as a younger person, not realizing how profound or accurate they were. But of course, it's also interesting

These are really good ads. I remember watching them as a younger person, not realizing how profound or accurate they were. But of course, it's also interesting to compare it to the actual world we live today. The most notable thing is the unification of all these futuristic ideas into a single platform, the modern day smart phone. What I see in the AT&T ads are seemingly all different individual devices operating with various independent protocols and support infrastructure. There's a commonality that AT&T is getting at, the early internet, but the devices themselves were never imagined as a single platform. A video screen in a phone booth, for example. These ads remind me that the iphone (and other smartphone brands) have so fundamentally changed the way we live in just 2 decades. AT&T might have had some to do with our world, but I don't think anyone could really see it or execute the way Steve Jobs could.

brewdad 4y ago
While certainly there is an element of the "unknowable" unknowns that led to the singualar device dominating so many of these predictions, I have to also think that some of the examples are used to make these future scenarios relatable to the 1993 present uses. For example, I can't imagine anyone at AT&T forward thinking enough to envision sending business communications from the beach thought we would be sending literal faxes.
stuart78 4y ago
I think the other element is a move from hardware to software. The zoom calls that replace the video phone booth are not just iPhones, but also conference rooms, computers, iPads. Smartphones bring all these solutions together, but the variety of ways to engage on such a wide variety of platforms is just as transformative.
blincoln 4y ago
The ads have great production design and direction, but I remember watching them in 1993 and thinking that they had just read/watched a bunch of 80s/early 90s sci fi and decided to take credit for other people's ideas without doing the hard work of implementing any of it. From previous discussions, it sounds like Bell Labs really did have prototypes of at least some of it, so I was wrong there, but I'm a little surprised if anyone had doubts as to whether any of those things would exist at some point in coming decades. For context, CD Connection was already selling CDs over the internet (telnet interface) when these ads aired. The King County (Washington) library system had a remote media-checkout system (can't remember if it was just dialup or also on the internet) where they'd mail you the material. Consumer GPS devices already existed, even if they were clunky and couldn't display a 3D map. Typical end users didn't have the bandwidth in their homes to do things like colour videoconferencing or Netflix-style on-demand video, but lots of folks were having text-based international discussions. I suppose a lot of it wasn't consumer-friendly enough for most people to have seen it in 1993, though.
kloch 4y ago
> There's a commonality that AT&T is getting at, the early internet The legacy telcos were NOT fans of the early Internet. They didn't like packet switched networks, variable sized packets, and especially best-effort delivery. That is why they spent the next 10 years trying to force ATM on everyone. They also couldn't figure out how to efficiently bill for these modern services, even up to the iPhone launch in 2007! https://money.cnn.com/2007/08/23/technology/iphone_bill/ https://money.cnn.com/2007/08/23/technology/iphone_bill/ A common thread in these commercials is high bandwidth applications (impossibly high bandwidth by 1993 standards) that would generate hefty usage fees. These applications were seen as so impractical in 1993 that the commercials were sometimes derided as an "empty promises" campaign. Most of it did come true however, though at this point we may be wishing some of it had not - sending a "fax" or "attending a meeting" from the beach for example.

brewdad 4y ago

While certainly there is an element of the "unknowable" unknowns that led to the singualar device dominating so many of these predictions, I have to also think that some of the examples are used to make these future scenarios relatable to the 1993 present uses. For example, I can't imagine anyone at AT&T forward thinking enough to envision sending business communications from the beach thought we would be sending literal faxes.

stuart78 4y ago

I think the other element is a move from hardware to software. The zoom calls that replace the video phone booth are not just iPhones, but also conference rooms, computers, iPads. Smartphones bring all these solutions together, but the variety of ways to engage on such a wide variety of platforms is just as transformative.

blincoln 4y ago

The ads have great production design and direction, but I remember watching them in 1993 and thinking that they had just read/watched a bunch of 80s/early 90s sci fi and decided to take credit for other people's ideas without doing the hard work of implementing any of it. From previous discussions, it sounds like Bell Labs really did have prototypes of at least some of it, so I was wrong there, but I'm a little surprised if anyone had doubts as to whether any of those things would exist at some point in coming decades. For context, CD Connection was already selling CDs over the internet (telnet interface) when these ads aired. The King County (Washington) library system had a remote media-checkout system (can't remember if it was just dialup or also on the internet) where they'd mail you the material. Consumer GPS devices already existed, even if they were clunky and couldn't display a 3D map. Typical end users didn't have the bandwidth in their homes to do things like colour videoconferencing or Netflix-style on-demand video, but lots of folks were having text-based international discussions. I suppose a lot of it wasn't consumer-friendly enough for most people to have seen it in 1993, though.

kloch 4y ago

> There's a commonality that AT&T is getting at, the early internet The legacy telcos were NOT fans of the early Internet. They didn't like packet switched networks, variable sized packets, and especially best-effort delivery. That is why they spent the next 10 years trying to force ATM on everyone. They also couldn't figure out how to efficiently bill for these modern services, even up to the iPhone launch in 2007! https://money.cnn.com/2007/08/23/technology/iphone_bill/ https://money.cnn.com/2007/08/23/technology/iphone_bill/ A common thread in these commercials is high bandwidth applications (impossibly high bandwidth by 1993 standards) that would generate hefty usage fees. These applications were seen as so impractical in 1993 that the commercials were sometimes derided as an "empty promises" campaign. Most of it did come true however, though at this point we may be wishing some of it had not - sending a "fax" or "attending a meeting" from the beach for example.