Who Doesn’t Want A $1,150 Machine That Makes Coffee And Soda?

Keurig, maker of digital rights management-laden coffee pod brewers, has seen its sales fall in recent weeks as customers made it known that they do not care for the latest version of the company’s machine. Yet what if there were a machine that could make both hot and carbonated beverages, and was available for the low price of $1,150? That device is coming, from Whirlpool and AB InBev.

Yes, you may know AB InBev as the owner of Budweiser and a whole bunch of other beer brands, but this machine is not a SodaStream for beer. If it did that, and if it made good beer, it could be worth that high sticker price. Sorry about that. While it’s starting out in Brazil, it could become available elsewhere eventually. The idea is to sell a single machine that makes hot and cold drinks, from coffee to juice, all from cartridges like the beverage systems that we’re used to.

The promotional video, which contains a weird amount of stock footage for things other than people enjoying delicious beverages, promises that the machine will automatically recognize what type of beverage cartridge you’ve loaded, adjusting the temperature and carbonation accordingly. That sounds a lot like the Keurig 2.0 technology that customers don’t seem particularly interested in.

Whirlpool and AB InBev team up on hot-and-cold drink machine [Reuters]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist