M2M and the Internet of Things

The big question being asked on Slashdot (and being picked up elsewhere in the tech media), is what on Earth Coca-Cola plans to do with the 16M MAC address block it has just requested (and been awarded):

GNU MacChanger's developer has found by chance that The Coca-Cola company got a range of MAC addresses allocated at the OUI, the IEEE Registration Authority in charge of managing the MAC addresses spectrum.

Of course the correct answer is that they're going to use them in their upcoming line of integrated vending machines, as well as to upgrade legacy machines (around 200K of them, I believe) with basic telemtry, inventory and payment processing information. Their current bill/coin acceptor vendor is already known to be working on a low-cost telemeter, and it's likely that they (perhaps in conjunction with another firm) will be fielding upgrade units to replace old bill acceptors in the legacy boxes.

That, or they plan to ship out a whole hell of a lot of Freestyle machines!