Coke and Pepsi locked in a vending-machine battle to the death

This week Pepsi announced the greenest vending machine in all the land. And now Coke has countered with the funnest one. Consumers who buy a Coke from its new "video vending machines" will be able to mess around with a touch screen to find out about promotions going on within Simon Malls. Throughout the spring, the No. 1 cola maker is testing the machines at Simon properties throughout the Southeast. The large-format touch screens are slated to offer mobile-phone downloads in the form of music files, ringtones and wallpapers in the future. They will also allow for cashless payment. I think instead of installing LCD displays, they should just carve a window into these machines so we can see all of the cool stuff going on inside the "Happiness Factory."

—Posted by Kenneth Hein