Shopsavvy is a program made by Big in Japan for cell phones which use Google's Android-system. It allows shop-goers to make live price comparisons between (web)stores based on barcodes. Then the phone can look for a store in your area using GPS. You can also add certain products to your wish list and visit the store online, look at the location on the map or make a call. Here another slicker, but less clear video.

Shopsavvy won the Google Android Developers contest. With over 300,000 active users it's already the most popular Android-download. Soon Shopsavvy will launch the Dutch version of its software.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is an enormous breakthrough. Every product with a barcode! It’s a beautiful example of the progress of the product activation trend. Perhaps currently limited to a single country, but soon all the products in the whole world. Currently just price comparison, later for all features. Producers will do everything they can to be as well-presented as possible, on the cell phone too.

Retailers are definitely going to experience the consequences of this. For any product the consumer will say: It can be cheaper, and that can be shown on the spot. Furthermore web products are delivered at him, so you no longer have to carry anything anywhere. All the advantage the retailer has left is physically showing the product and perhaps advice at the limited choice available in a physical store (and some other minor advantages).

Stores have to evolve into ‘experience stores’: places where you can really try out a product. That retailer will start to ask money to demonstrate the product. They become an extension of the producer, so to speak. Then you can order the product from the retailer’s web store immediately and if you want to have it delivered (or if the physical store doesn’t have it in stock) that can be done too, because the prices on the internet will have to be competitive. With that difference that that physical retailers can give you a fuzzy feeling inside through sensory stimulation that in the virtual world is restricted to sight and sound.

By the by, this isn’t the end. Later we’ll also be able to see if a store has a product in stock and reserve it immediately, with a down-payment if necessary. Then retailland has to be automated really well and a lot has to happen for that, especially in smaller stores. It’s time for retailer action, because it’s getting really hot now. More than ever, seems to me.

Related trends

• Product activation

Sony's virtual world home is now available. Judging by the trailers with (far) better graphics than, for example, Second Life. Home isn't a general virtual world in which anyone can build buildings and objects, but an entertainment and game environment. Home is aimed at gamers, anyone with a Playstation 3 (PS3) has access and gets their own account. Anyone you meet is also a PS3 owner.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Currently such high resolution 3D worlds are for the console gamer only, but in the long term, every brand, even the smallest store around the corner, will have its own 3d world which you can access on any screen, so also your cell or watch. It’s a 3d world, just like the store is 3d. In every world you do what fits the brand. Sony stands for entertainment and video, so you’ll find entertainment and video in this world. With a clothing brand, you’ll find a completely different environment.

And the consoles will stay ahead of it for now. Later all you need to do is stand in the living room. You’ll get scanned and projected directly into that world. It’ll become so real that we won’t be able to tell the difference between a window in our home or a TV screen on the wall.

Related trends

• Brand worlds

Uitzending gemist, the Dutch site for catching episodes you've missed on TV, is now also available on the cell phone.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Watching television is an experience, literally. You experience something. It’s a passive experience: you see something, so you experience it. People like to share experiences. And television is an important part of that; after all, people watch tv a lot and have gained many experiences from this device. The ability to illustrate an experience by getting out the cell phone will increase the power enormously. Later we’ll drag our finger across a cell and point at a big screen that shows the video content again in HD format. So that we’ll be able to see what we’re talking about clearly. This is a step in that direction.

Google lets developers design add-ons for its internet browser Chrome, like competitor FireFox. Many wishlists have so called ad blockers, scripts that make it impossible to display ads. Other popular extensions show in the browser what the weather'll be like or give access to, for example, iTunes.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

It’s an example of how brands involve the consumer in the development process, an example of how brands are becoming more open and more transparent to eventually make the barrier between consumer and producer disappear. The question is, what you own as stock owner then. There’s no contract with the consumer; it’s pure emotional binding.

Using HuizenZoeker's (Dutch) housing market monitor, people looking for a house can keep track of actual figures and trends in the market. They can search by province, municipality, city or the type of house. The detailed page of the house has the median of the asking price and the average asking price per square meter in the municipality. For example, the average asking price per square meter in the Dutch municipality Bloemendaal is €5,188. A drop of 0.8% compared to last week.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Anything, absolutely anything in the physical world, will become transparent and mapped overseeably. Based on this information new companies, which enjoy the benefit of the doubt, will start to advise us individually. They earn from adding value to this information. This is a nice example in this direction.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Dutch vacation review site Zoover has spread over 13 language areas. Zoover is partnering with tour operators that can place the reviews on their own site and in return Zoover is allowed to approach the vacation goers to write a review afterwards. The strength of the internationalisation is in the judgement, the hard numbers people give. Those are useable internationally. The reviews themselves won't be translated.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Coaching brands work worldwide with the greatest ease. They bring together ideas, thoughts, opinions, and can use them to advise the individual, help them along. That’s international per definition, not transcending border, international. Very slowly we’re letting go of thinking in countries to go over to a situation in which we view the 6,6 billion people living and working together on this earth as equals. Without borders, which we once created but slowly need less. But slowly, very slowly.

Related trends

• De-nationalizing

Dutch restaurantsite Iens has, beside its mobile site, an application for the iPhone. You can search on location and kitchen and then get the restaurants with address, grade, and – useful – phone number you can click and call immediately. The iPhone application also shows you photos, the chosen restaurants on the map and the route from where you are at that moment (using GPS).

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Leisure brands are ideally suited for mobile applications. Currently we have to call the restaurant, but later we can reserve immediately. Currently we’re seeing everyone’s reviews, but later what our friends thought of it. Currently only in the Netherlands, but later this’ll work everywhere in the world, in all possible languages. If you’re in Nairobi and get hungry, you’ll go to Iens and look for a nice restaurant in the neighbourhood. All developments that are waiting to happen and ceased being hocus pocus long ago.

Bruna has developed a gadget with which Hyvers (users of social network Hyves), can select three books, give them a rating and show them on their profile. Friends in their turn can look up more book details by clicking on the books. That data is provided by Bruna by means of a link to the corresponding book page on Bruna.nl

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In a next step you can see which books you’ve bought at Bruna, which books you own (no matter where you bought them), or have ever read. We make everything overseeable and decide whom to share the information with. This is a nice example.

The Flip Mino HD recorder is an extremely simple device, as big as a cell phone, weights 93 grams, has a built in usb-connector (no more looking for cables) and sends movies to your favourite website with the press of a button. It only has one physical button (the on-off switch) and the other buttons are touch-buttons that light up when necessary. Despite its small dimensions and simple design it makes qualitatively excellent images with High Definition-resolution (720p) and you can even edit movies on the fly.

Every camera can be equipped with your own design. We're not talking about stickers or click-covers, but a real print. There are hundreds of designs available from which you can choose one, but you can also get to work with all sorts of patterns and your own pictures to determine your camera's look all by yourself. Furthermore you can release your design to others and have it added to the gallery of the online shop. Every time a camera with your design is sold you get $10,- commission. The price of the camera is the same no matter what the design.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

There are all sorts of trends hidden in this example.

All traditional marketing Ps are under pressure.
Product and Price: everything is becoming personal again. Currently the price is the same, but later we’ll get a ‘free’ customised design, but if we want something really special, especially designed for you, or maybe a limited edition, or with the designer’s name/logo on it, then we’ll pay (a lot) more. This is how photo and video cameras become part of your identity, brands with a true symbolic function.

Beside that the involvement of the consumer,  the more open attitude of brands and taking the consumer seriously is standard in this. A nice example of brand coming-out.

And finally everything is becoming simpler, simpler, simpler. Technology is disappearing and interaction with a virtual world is left.

Related trends

• Brand coming out
• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Facebook users from the UK can use GetThemIn to give each other real alcoholic drinks. They can choose from an assortment of wine, beer, champagne, or spirits. For this they first add the GetThemIn-application to their Facebook account, then they select what they want to give to which friend. Payment goes through Google checkout. Then their friends get a Facebook notification, a text message that you'll receive a discount coupon that'll land in your post box a little later. This lets you pick up your product in the store.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Still pretty complication, but the essence is that brands (like GetThemIn) are using your friends list. Where this leads to in the long term is that you’ll be standing in a store, think ‘hey, this is nice for Lisette!’. Then you have a spoken dialogue with a brand like GetThemIn, which then delivers a wrapped package to Lisette, or sends her a message: “You’ve received xxx from Erwin, you can pick it up at the end of the street”, or – even better – use her location. Suddenly a delivery person will be standing in front of her: “Here you go, for you!”. That’s how simple it can be, how far it can go, will go.

Related trends

• Tribal

Using Facebook Connect brands can discover whether their customers really know one another. Firstly it's a means for site manages not to do any identification of site visitors, but to let Facebook do it. For example, who registers on video community site HowCast clicks on the 'FConnect' button (or: 'register via Facebook'). Then an extra screen is added in which have to enter your Facebook username/password and then returns you to the main screen. Your name and photo have now appeared and your gender has been entered too. Useful, easy, and quick.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Yet it won’t stop here. Facebook claims ‘real identity’. Of course there’s no sign of that. On Facebook too you can pretend to be whoever you want and you can take that weird identity with you everywhere. Later on you’ll really need to verify your identity on Facebook, using a copy of your passport and Facebook will make a distinction between ‘authenticated users’ and ‘registered users’. And later that won’t be good enough either and you’ll need to identify yourself in a physical office to make a connection to a social networking account. Every social networking account, not just Facebook. And that world-wide. And then we’re not even talking about password security. Actually you should be connected through your webcam, Facebook can look into your eyes, have a small conversation with you (all automated of course) and only then let you join. If we’re talking about ‘real identity’ there are still some steps to take.

But for brands this already offers gigantic opportunities. Finally you can understand what role your customers play in social life. Which consumers are connected? How do they (and exactly they) pass things along? Brands can finally start to think tribally to get access to the customers social life.

Related trends

• Tribal

At Hive Cooperative you can rent completely furnished office spaces. There are three available plans: $349/Month for the Anchor Plan (About the cost of 3 Starbucks Lattes Per Day), $199/Month for the Hotdesk Plan (About the cost of 2 Starbucks Lattes Per Day), $129/Month for the Nights and Weekends Plan (About the cost of 1 Starbucks Latte Per Day). With the last Hive Cooperative targets new media people, photographers and designers.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The network economy is given increasingly more shape. In this economy each individual is given all freedom, but still keeps looking for other people. Not just for the facilities (which, by the by, are available at home with increasingly more ease), but especially for the social contacts. You might find yourself in Sydney for a few months and you can quickly look up where your contacts are working now, to go there for a few hours. For a chat, for a focused discussion, or to feel what’s happening in the world with all your senses.

Related trends

• Network economy

Casio's new digital camera, the Exilim, projects a small character in the screen. It concerns a character from Doraemon, a popular Japanese animation show. The face is used to give visual signals on how the photo will look. If the photo isn't focused right, Doraemon won't look happy. But if the photo is focused right (and the people in the picture smile on top of that), Doraemon smiles broadly.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands let themselves be represented by characters more and more. Currently on this specific screen, but later you’ll see this characters when you sort your photos on big screens. More examples will follow.

Related trends

• Brand visualization

Netlog, a European social network, is now also available as iPhone application. The application allows you to upload pictures directly to your Netlog profile. Furthermore the application uses GPS and if you indicate what you're doing, your friends will also see where you're doing that. The application is available in English, German, Spanish, Finnish, French and Italian.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are creeping very close to the consumer, namely in their cell phone and in their friends list. Furthermore, they speak your language. Currently only in a few languages, in time all the languages in the world, in all accents, and furthermore social coaching brands, of which Netlog is a primal form, will know exactly those words you and your friends use, and know how to play with those. We might talk about customer intimacy, but in comparison to what’s coming, everything that’s been pales.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue
• De-nationalizing

In Japan, men who consider themselves too fat can be assisted by virtual women (Okusama) through the mobile phone. Subscribers to this free service can choose from four types: a cute waitress, a cool and dominant business woman, a motherly nurse, or a fashionable nail stylist. You can choose her name yourself. Then men enter their length, height and lifestyle habits and the ladies get to it.

Then you get four emails a day from your virtual dietitians which subtly remind you not to fall back into bad eating and drinking habits and suggestions for reaching your ideal weight. All in a tone which fits the character. The service also has a 'meal management tool' in which you can enter a menu yourself and find out how many calories it has.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This example hides two trends. First brands are taking on the role of coach more and more often, start to stand by our side 24 hours a day and study a specific area, like in this case health. Furthermore brands are letting themselves be represented by virtual characters, brand agents or chatbots more and more often.

The next steps are predictable as a result. The link to our shopping list, recognition of products before we even buy them, and the spoken dialogue. And after that it just goes on. The world is progressing step by step, and you can see it by this kind of ‘gadgets’.

Related trends

• Coaching brands
• Brand-dialogue

On the Dutch dating site Relatieplanet it's now also possible to chat with employees. This way a question can be answered quickly.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

What we first saw as ‘websites’ or ‘portals’, we’re more and more seeing as complete companies, with a customer service. Those companies add value to people’s lives. People pay for that. And with this you pay, amongst others, for customer service. This is how we see that nothing is really free. But that adding something to people’s lives has value, and which people want to pay for. Relatieplanet has understood this and a million other examples will follow.