Diet Pepsi is running radio commercials which spoof GM's OnStar emergency response system. In one spot, a person claiming to be a chronic "nail biter" calls for assistance to open his Diet Pepsi. He chewed all his nails during a job interview earlier that day. When asked if he has a coin to open the can, he says he only has dollar bills. The dispatcher tells him they are aware of his location and help is on the way...how dare a low tech, beverage company make fun of GPS technology? Well, may be because the vending machines they are sold from are pretty high-tech.
In the mid-80s, a client told me a story about how his security firm was driven nuts as they tried to investigate outgoing calls from their building in the middle of the night. Their logs did not show any human being in the building - so who could be calling or faxing at those hours? Turns out it was a vending machine automatically dialing the distributor for replenishments. Since then I have been very respectful of vending machines. If they want to keep my money, fine. You may have heard the expression - "change is inevitable, except from a vending machine". I know they are smarter than they look.
Vending machines have come a long way since their humble beginning selling post cards and books. Now you can buy h0t, cold, prepared, customized products of all sorts form them. Japan, a country that loves gadgets has one vending machine for every 20 people. You can buy shorts, custom made business cards and insurance.
The Finns who love their cell phones (and the local success Nokia) figured out a way to use those phones to pay for vending machines - 8 years ago! In France, they have machines to charge cell phones. Coke has tested dynamic pricing - price of a can or bottle varies with the temperature (I think someone told them to research how yield management has ruined the US airline industry). A sure sign you have matured in the technology world is when hackers focus on you.
As this article describes, a whole bunch of wireless, GPS, PDA, electronic payment, data exchange and other technologies are making the vending machine smarter each day - and enabling "V-Commerce".
Going back to the 80s. Remember when Steve Jobs of Apple recruited John Sculley from Pespi with these famous words ""Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?"
Turns out Pepsi vending machines have been far more high-tech than Steve gave them credit for. They have been doing "self-service" decades before software vendors like SAP introduced that innovation in the mid-90s. If they want to make fun of GM's OnStar, I think they have earned their technology stripes.
