Airline KLM has launched a digital boarding pass that allows passengers to check in and board an airplane using their (smart)phone without the need for paper. After checking in via (mobile) internet they'll receive a message with a barcode via SMS, email or MMS. The message will also contain standard information like departure time and seat number. The barcode is scanned at the gate and allows the passengers to find their place.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In the next step KLM will use our current position to guide us through the airport. When a plane is delayed, we’ll be informed so we can enjoy another cappuccino. When we have to start walking because the gate is a 30 minutes’ walk from our current position, we’ll be informed in time. And just a few years after this we’ll have a spoken conversation with the brand agent of KLM, which will come into our lives during the sales process and guides us from our front door to the moment we’ve arrived at the next transport hub or destination and which will do the evaluation afterwards.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

The Dutch public transport travel planner 9292 is organizing a contest that challenges students to create the ultimate public transport (web) application. They get access to a special server that sends them XML-code which they can use to connect their application to the public transport databases. They can win 1500, 750 or 500 euro.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

All companies will open their databases. First they were the web 2.0 companies, but now also traditional companies with a lot of technology, later you’ll get insight in every detail and into every company. That’s called transparent working in the network economy. And that process of change is called the brand coming out. A nice example.

Related trends

• Brand coming out

TripIT is a LinkedIn widget: an application on which you can show where you are in the world and show this on your profile. Of course you can do this manually, but TripIT has a simpler function:

E-mail everything -- flights from ba.com, hotels from Orbitz, car rental confirmations -- to this address and we'll condense it into one itinerary.

That's a lot easier.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We simply connect everything, but soon we’ll be releasing database records to organizations like TripIT. We give third parties the right to look at our traveling data. That’s the basis on which travel coaching brands can grow. When they know all about our trips, who best to advise us?

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Dutch vehicle owners can now log in (with their unique code for the Dutch government: DigiD) on the RDW (official governmental vehicle registration) through MijnOverheid.nl and see for which vehicles they're responsible. They can see the technical data, insurance, year, date of the first license plate and the validity of the vehicle inspection.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’ll be shown everything that’s been recorded about us. Currently as a nice gesture, but later it’ll be recorded in the law. In a next step we can give others access, so that, for example, a garage can keep the maintenance book up-to-date online and can have the car pass the inspection immediately. Or can connect to the car, for example to install the latest software update of the navigation software. Or we can transfer the car from the sale. And of course that can also be done mobile, so that we take care of this standing by the car. It’s all heading in that direction.

Related trends

• Network economy

Chip producer NXP has developed a chip for a car key. The chip helps you find your car back in a large parking lot. Holding the key near one's cell phone creates a connection with the car and then you receive the location on your cell which then navigates you neatly to your car. Furthermore the key lets you see which doors are locked and if they roof's closed. Useful for anyone doubting that when there are clouds drifting over when they're walking to the store.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are going to coach us. They know much better than you which choices you can make, where you have to go and where you shouldn’t go. They’ll coach us in real time on the spot. It’s just a piece of technology, but it’ll be the most normal thing in the world.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

TomTom is launching a free Online Route Planner. With this travelers can plan a route before leading and receive exact traveling and arrival times which take into account current and historical information regarding traffic flow during the day. HD traffic with 500 billion historical speed measurements of roads across the world is integrated too.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are disconnecting from screens and enter the dialogue through every possible one. That dialogue goes on. Where a conversation ends on one screen, it continues on another. Currently for two screens (nagivational system and computer screen), soon for every screen you can imagine. You just call ‘TomTom’. You’re recognized immediately and the dialogue is continued. This is a nice example of this development.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

Two iPhone application, Trein (Train) and iNap, will start to work together. Using Trein you can see up-to-date time timetables for your stations, you can look up disruptions and construction work and plan train journeys that are remembered. iNap wakes you up (gives you a signal when you reach your final destination). The integration means you only need to tell it your final destination and you'll get a signal when you need to get off or switch trains.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how the travel coaching brand is slowly shaped. Currently as an iPhone application, but soon you’ll plan your journey from every possible screen. And if you need to take a cab ride too, you’ll be helped with that too. Whether the brand is called ‘Trein’, ‘iNap’ or something else, eventually there’ll be a buddy for traveling from A to B across the whole world. A buddy we’ll be happy to pay for. That’s the big development.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

iNap is an iPhone application that wakes you up when you reach your destination. The application costs $0.99 and is available in the Apple Store.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands will guide us, coach us. Later on we won’t have to pay attention to anything. When we wake up on the train, we’ll be told whether we have to get off at the front or the back of the carriage, which elevator we need to take, and that there’s a cab waiting for us at the door. It’ll eventually go so far that we can give our coat to a robot who’ll store it for us. The navigational system is an effective example of today. These are useful successors. But the real work has yet to come. Fodder for Pamper Planet.

Related trends

• 2050-2100: Pamper planet

TravelPilot 700 N700, the newly available navigational system by Blaupunkt shows the street as we see it through our front window and also shows the desired directions for where we're driving. Here a demovideo. The device has a camera at the back which in a manner of speaking is see-through, like looking through a windowpane, and then projects the arrows real-time onto the screen. With this the manufacturer has a world-scoop.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Ever more we’re putting a shell around the physical world to interpret it quickly. Currently in a separate system, soon with our front window, through special glasses to our contact lenses. Less and less weight to carry while we’re helped more and more efficiently. We can ask questions with anything we aim at and get answers. And walking a route alone will be as easy as someone walking with you holding your hand. This is again a great step in that direction.

Through the Dutch site Startpagina Verkeer (Startpage Traffic) it's now also possible to obtain real time detailed information regarding traffic jams. The information originates from the TomTom.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how real time information is unlocked on all possible screens. In this case not only through navigational systems, but also on all other screens, like the computer screen. A new type of brand can be created that will guide us through the world based on our preferences, availability and our budget.

When one looks up a route, Dutch Routesite Routenet automatically calculates the actual fuel costs based on the type of car and fuel used. By entering the car's license plate number the model of the car, the fuel consumption and the actual fuel prices are looked up. Based on that Routenet calculates the cost.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Mobility coaching brands help you get from A to B using conditions you’ve set yourself. All possible information will be used for this. At first it was just about the roads, but now we’re seeing the use of estimated traveling times or even actual traveling times more and more often, now the costs are also added to the list. Soon costs will be weighted against other forms of transport, desired comfort and, on top of that, globally. This is how mobility coaching brands ensure that you can reach any destination on earth using your personal preferences. Routenet takes another step in that direction.

Inside Trip has refined searching for flights to such an extent that not just the price counts as a criteria, but also the amount of transfers, the risk of delays and the average amount of times luggage gets lost.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’re guided better and better. All generic aspects will start to count. All personal aspects will start to count too. That’s the added value of the mobility coaching brands.

Through SMSParking inhabitants of Amsterdam can pay for their parking with a text message. A simple text message at the beginning and end of parking will do. The driver parks his/her car and sends a text message with the zone-number of the parking lot and the license plate number of the car to 4030. The system confirms that parking has started with a text message. Placing a separate parking ticket in your car will no longer be necessary. As soon as the driver is done parking, (s)he sends a message with just the letter 'q' to state that they quit parking there. The system again confirms this with a text message which will contain the zone, the license plate number, the time, the date and the price.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In the dialogue between human and brand payment is a normal part. Soon if we say to our brand ‘Yes, that’s what I want’ it’ll be given to you immediately and the payment will be dealt with immediately as well. For parking this means that our mobility coaching brand will soon see that we’re standing in a specific spot, organize the payment for us and give us an overview at the end of the month. If we want, we’ll also be given tips on how to reduce the costs of parking, but some people won’t need that. The mobility coaching brand will understand precisely.

At Rijschool Network (Driving School Network) people who are looking for driving lessons through Hyves (rijscholen.hyves.nl), a Dutch social networking site, can see where their friends learned to drive and what they thought of it.

Driving schools can make accounts for their instructors. With this account they can use email to invite students to share the driving school through their Hyves (or Messenger) network. Because of the link back to Hyves this can happen through a simple confirmation by the student. In the meantime over 100 driving schools have already registered for the new service.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Soon Rijschool Network will list all the driving schools in the Netherlands. Or further: all the driving schools in Europe. Because maybe you’ll pay far less for lessons in Spain and your driving license will still be valid in the Netherlands. Nice to combine with an internship or a vacation. From this perspective Rijschool Network will get a relationship with the mobile consumer. A next step could be advice on cats, on insurance or repairs. Or how to best use your car. How to drive best. And when it’s better to take the train. And how your friends are traveling, because Rijschool Network will have known who your friends are for years, after all. This is how Rijschool Network can grow into a mobility coaching brand from an existing relationship.

Google has unveiled a telephone with a built-in compass. 360 degrees recordings of a location (for example seen through Google Maps) can be looked at realistically where you are. You aim for a specific point and if you turn the image will turn with you. It looks very logical.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This technology will take mobility coaching brands a step further. It’ll guide you on foot, by train, by subway, by bus, by bicycle, motor or even on an airport effortlessly from A to B. No more talk of getting lost then.

The NS (Dutch Railway company) displays its disruptions through an RSS feed. With this feed (Dutch) users will automatically be kept up to date of disruptions on the train tracks. Then third-parties have made a delaygadget (Dutch) for Windows Vista. This gadget allows delays to appear automatically on the traveler's desktop.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Traveling information is tailored more and more to the individual. For now you still see all the disruptions and delays, but soon you’ll see only those which are relevant to you. For now you can only see that there is a delay, but soon you’ll be able to see how long you’ll be delayed. For now it’s only for (Dutch) trains, but soon a mobility coaching brand will assist you to get from A to B and takes all available real-time information regarding trains, cars, bicycles (weather), walking (danger) or taxi (costs). This is only a start.