eCommerce… as Imagined in 1967?
To celebrate the start of another weekend, today we’re sharing a fun eCommerce blast from the past. This clip from the 1967 film 1999 A.D. attempts to predict how the average customer would shop, manage money, and even send mail in the future using personal computers. Though she’s missing a keyboard and the site she’s browsing could use a serious lesson in usability, the prediction is humorously spot-on. See for yourself, and tell us your favorite aspect of this “vision of the future.”
Posted by Chris | September 14, 2007
stojaki reklamowe September 14th, 2007
future is closer than we think
illnoise September 14th, 2007
I like how it was beyond comprehension that one machine could handle your communication, shopping, AND finances. Can you imagine having one computer for google, one for Photoshop, one for IM, one for email…
Shannon September 14th, 2007
Stojaki,
You’re not kidding…
Illinoise,
I love that image… “Oh, sorry, that project is going to be late… my Photoshop computer is in the shop…”
MATTHEW ROSE September 16th, 2007
I used to write for DIRECT MARKETING MAGAZINE in the 1980s (the Magazine was launched in the 1950s) and we covered electronic commerce non-stop. On a trip to France in 1988 (I live in Paris now), I visited the nerve center of the infamous Minitel system. Minitel was the first widely distributed connected computer system. I believe some 7 million homes in France were connected, plus libraries. France Telecom made a fortune in connection fees. The biggest earner was the 3615 or “rose” services. Yes, sex text chatting. Interesting too see all those screens, and for bills, an image of a tab from a local diner! I like the writing tablet and the fax machine. The humor concerning the husband paying the bills is also dead on… Now that we’re here in the future, I feel lonesome for the past!
Matthew Rose / Paris, France
jakemun September 18th, 2007
The video was dated, especially when the wife is only concerned
about the household, shopping and a security camera on the children. Today of course many women and men bring in the incomes. I liked the idea of the electronic mail service that could connect anywhere in the world that was right on. I noticed there weren’t any icons on their desktops and I noticed how easy it was
to switch from window to window and the ease at which they were simply able to switch the computer on/off with the turn of a knob or the flip of a switch. I want a hardware monitoring device to correct hardware issues when they arise on my computer!!!!!
Jason Robb September 19th, 2007
The look on the husband’s face was great! Haha, very dated indeed. I especially liked the panning view of the many plugs that “back-up” the system when in danger. The computer has come a long way!
Shannon September 19th, 2007
Matthew,
I loved the diner tab as well! It’s amazing what was concieveable to these filmmakers, and what wasn’t. The idea that you could do everything with a single screen seems so routine to us, but the couldn’t seem to wrap their minds around it.
Jakemun,
Definitely dated, but I think that makes it even funnier. We need to get our scientists on this “hardware monitoring device!”
Jason,
The look on his face is my favorite part as well. Great stuff.
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I really like the layout and colors that you chose for this website! It certainly is incredible!