Say you're zoning out in SFO (that's San Francisco International Airport for the lay folk), waiting for a connecting flight, and you start to daydream about that Motorola
PEBL you've had your eye on for the past few months. Wouldn't it be great if you could get the phone, like,
right now, all without having to interact with a human being? Motorola has started pilot testing of its "INSTANTMOTO" automated kiosks in SFO and Macy's flagship State Street store in downtown Chicago (pictured above), offering a variety of phones -- both the unlocked and carrier-locked varieties -- and all manner of accessories. The pilot program will be expanded to a total of about 20 airport and mall locations by year's end; we're guessing it feels a little weird to feed a vending machine with a couple hundred singles, but fortunately, the vend-bot happily takes plastic.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
korey @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:09PM
How much for a PEBL black or white dont really care just interested so i can get to my local airport and get a PEBL for cingular.
Jeff Mac @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:15PM
I, for one, welcome welcoming our phone-dispensing robot overlords.
mroach @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:35PM
I wonder if that soda vending machine trick will work on these :)
biz @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:16PM
The only way I'd use a vending machine to buy a phone is if there was a leprechaun living inside of it to answer all of my inevitable tech questions. And if there was a leprechaun living inside of it...I imagine that the horrible smell would scare off customers.
T-Will @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:29PM
I like to mess around with phones for a while before I actually buy one, so this wouldn't work for me.
Sorry cell-phone dispensing vending machine robot overlords.
bryan harig @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:45PM
Will they come fully charged? That would be awesome, swipe your card, swap your sim and you have a ready to go phone!
PainCorp @ Sep 22nd 2006 9:39PM
i honestly dont see these things taking off...so few people buy phones from retail locations off contract that its not going to be worth it to them in the long run...and these machines have to be pretty pricey...
Donald @ Sep 22nd 2006 10:45PM
What about a hack that would have them dispensing Nokias? At least then there'd be some quality product. :P
srw985 @ Sep 23rd 2006 4:38AM
1st. mroach, isnt that what engadget actually said in the post about the soda vending machine trick
2nd. these have been around for ages. phone dispensing vending machines, aswell as ipod dispensing machines etc, have been around for years. theres some in the major vodafone stores in the UK, theres a smaller one in the vodafone trafford centre for example.
nick c @ Sep 23rd 2006 1:43PM
they have one of these at a macy's near my house for iPods, but i never took a close look at it
looks fun tho for those times when you want to be cool but you aren't
strider_mt2k @ Sep 24th 2006 7:48AM
Way to get in the spirit Engadget! :D
Ron @ Nov 28th 2006 11:19PM
There's one at the Sony Metreon on Mission and 4th in downtown SF. It's HUGE!
Ron @ Nov 28th 2006 11:20PM
There's one at the Sony Metreon on Mission and 4th in downtown SF.
It's HUGE!