Gawker 
Mar 10, 2009 4:42 PM
9,422
The practice of predicting the future in ads has always been dicey. But in 1993, AT&T got damn near everything right! Present-day dreamers Microsoft would kill for this record of adverfuturism accuracy:
AT&T's correct predictions in 1993: EZ Pass, GPS, text messages, Ticketmaster.com, webcams, video conferencing, movies on demand, online universities.
Incorrect: the prediction that these would be brought to you by AT&T.
Microsoft's 2009 predictions for 2019: drawing magically in the air, projecto-keys, ear-looking gizmos, houses and stores that will stalk you, the newspaper of the future, "digital wallet," pretty much everything that was in Minority Report, a grocery list that's digital, translation thingies, things for your boring job, plant diagnosing contraptions, fancy little remote controls.
Microsoft's 2009 predictions for 2019: drawing magically in the air, projecto-keys, ear-looking gizmos, houses and stores that will stalk you, the newspaper of the future, "digital wallet," pretty much everything that was in Minority Report, a grocery list that's digital, translation thingies, things for your boring job, plant diagnosing contraptions, fancy little remote controls.All the good stuff has been done.
Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com.
