On 16^th March we launched a gorgeous new app for Lastminute.com, which offers smooth hotel booking on Windows Phone 7 devices.   Book at over 80,000 hotels in Europe and across the world on the app, including Top Secret deals that tell you your hotel’s location -yup you guessed it- at the last minute!

Windows Phone 7 is the fourth platform that we have worked in for Last Minute and has been designed to take advantage of Microsoft’s innovative interface.  Future Platform’s Sergio Falletti says “We were keen to make the most of the Windows Phone 7 UI, with its panoramas and pivot tables.  The app is a delightful way of teasing you into exploring what’s available and chimes with Lastminutes.com’s distinctive branding.”

The smooth side scroll that showcases European vistas has indeed won praise from users and industry alike for both its usability and aesthetic appeal garnering an array of glowing user reviews.  It has been featured on the Marketplace, is the best-rated Travel app and is being used by Microsoft as a case study for WP7 design best practice.

The app features browsing, searching and booking with added Top Secret hotel deals, where a potential 50% discount on booking 4 and 5 star hotels is available.  The app then stores your booking and integrates it with mapping to make finding your destination that little bit simpler on your arrival.

Travel is an important sector for Future Platforms and Vexed: in the last year we’ve launched Top Secret Hotel and general booking apps for lastminute.com, a flight booking app for Malaysian Airlines, and a wealth of web-related updates for De Vere Hotels, who’ve been a customer of Vexed for several years. So when I booked a couple of weeks holiday on the US West Coast for this Easter, it seemed like a good idea to examine the trip from the perspective of a customer: how could mobile improve my travel experience, and where would it still come up short?

Booking and Checking In
My girlfriend and I booked our flights out and back using tablet versions of Opodo on an iPad. There’s nothing particularly interesting to report here, it all just worked.  The fun started with checkin: we were flying with British Airways, so I downloaded the excellent BA app for the iPhone – and was instantly impressed. The app gave me the ability to check in there and then, and a digital boarding pass which I could present at security and during boarding. Whilst handing my mobile to a complete stranger felt quite uncomfortable, no one raised an eyebrow when I presented my digital pass. A short delay in our flight was instantly transmitted to the app and flagged even as it was announced over the tannoy, and I was able to see details of our return flights – even hops connected by other airlines. Kudos to BA for creating such a useful and well-oiled service; I can only shiver at the thought of what behind-the-scenes work was necessary to bring it to this high standard.
Once outside the limits of the Orange network, my mobile usage was dominated by fear of running up obscene roaming charges, so I quickly deactivated data roaming on my mobile and started what became a constant hunt for free wi-fi.  An app which assisted with this would have been helpful: I’ve long wanted something which could alert me to nearby wi-fi hot- spots.

Getting Around
Google Maps proved excellent for getting around, to the point where we found ourselves bemoaning good navigation for for the serendipitous opportunities it exterminated. I noticed the app also caches map tiles quite aggressively: panning around the local area was enough to load a usable urban map onto my iPhone and have it available when wandering downtown, offline. And when we drove down the beautiful Californian coast and were covering greater distances (sometimes without even mobile coverage – some remote parts of Big Sur forced us away from the Internet for a while), a few screenshots of maps served us well.  Good to know the Rough Guides series of apps Future Platforms is launching on Windows Phone 7 will have maps available offline too then!  The one thing I would have liked is a guide to local driving regulations; anyone who’s enjoyed the experience of travelling as a passenger whilst I drive will understand why.

WiFi Maps
My other observation was around the symbolic nature of Wi-fi: scanning for hot spots whilst standing on Mission, I was chuffed to notice the Stamen Design wireless network; on another trip around town, Ammunition Group announced themselves through their SSID. These little advertisements of local businesses reminded me of the maps FourSquare are building, matching geolocations to points of interest to humans: I was left with the aftertaste of a semantic map every bit as interesting as that of the Muni bus routes or CalTrain.

Coming Home
Overall, I was impressed. BA had reached through the touchscreen of my mobile to hold my hand reassuringly as they shipped me across the globe. And I couldn’t help reflecting that whilst a decade ago I would frequently get lost in the backstreets of Tokyo, or have trouble establishing exactly which metro I should take to find my way home in Barcelona, the sensation of being truly lost was one I would find it hard to recreate nowadays.

On Thursday some of our female contingent ventured through the April showers down to The Marketing Store where in a rather cool basement the creative, curious, powerful and innovative gathered to listen to three inspirational female speakers in digital and design.  The event is run by global network SheSays (which is an award-winning organization running free mentorship and events for women in the creative and marketing businesses), with the theme of ‘Brand You’.

First up was Ciara O’Meara who told us about how she landed her first dream designer job in the states.   Ciara secured her dream job with  by writing a poem to the director.  Keen to stand out amongst the crowd of CVs she penned her very own poem to him, and lo and behold received an invitation to interview from the man himself.  Ciara is now an Creative Director at her own start-up and in her spare time runs a Twitter account in which she will draw your image for a follow…a great, simple idea!

Next up was our very own Managing Director at Vexed and Future Platforms, Xanthe, who gave a presentation on how branding yourself, although similar to a company or business branding strategy, is at heart about staying true to your values, your strengths and personal integrity.

Finally we heard from Nicola Sherry from Sidekick Studios who spoke about their inspirational work on projects such as the Amazings, which provides a platform for retired people with skills.  Her message for personal branding success was about seizing opportunities, good old fashioned cover letters and not being afraid to get your hands dirty to get small projects off the ground.

SheSays is well worth a visit, check out their future events here, we met and chatted to some lovely ladies who are making it work in their chosen fields and was well worth traipsing through the spring rain for!

First tip: Do Your Homework!

Second tip: Be True To Yourself

Third tip: Seize The Chance…and don’t be afraid of new experiences.

Another year, another Mobile World Congress closing its gates.

For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of attending this once-a-year mobile industry meet-up, you should know that it is so huge that the best way of really hearing what’s going on is to follow it online.  No point in walking miles to hit all the stands.

The point of being here is that you get to catch up with the rest of the industry around the Fira, at fringe events and at the parties around town (Helen Keagan’s Swedish Beers above all). So what were people talking about?

Mobile payments struck a chord.  Facebook’s announcement that they want to solve the mobile payments problem was the main highlight: app stores will continue to have the upper hand when it comes to micropayments until there are alternatives that are global and just as seamless.

Paypal joined in,with their own declaration of intent. They also added a data point: they are expecting $7bn worth of mobile payments in 2012.

While the big guns try and solve a problem that should have been sorted ages ago, the mobile industry is already setting the next challenge: NFC payments. Visa announced their partnership with Samsung for the Olympics and with Vodafone for the Vodafone Mobile Wallet.  It feels like it is just the beginning – surely device fragmentation will step in and hold back full rollout for a few years.

I may have been talking to the wrong people, but the Html5 vs. Native debate seems to have become more rational.  Facebook, again, brought it into light by announcing their involvement in Html standards evolution – effectively recognition of the fact that Html5 is still short of the build-once-deploy-everywhere promise – something we have talked about a lot.  It is still the future though, and the Telefonica+Mozilla partnership shows that powerful players are behind it.

I didn’t really look at many devices. Every year needs a tech first, and I would give that to the Galaxy Beam – mobiles with projectors have been promised for years and it’s good to see someone mad enough to make it happen. On the downside, I didn’t hear many positive comments about the award-winning Nokia 808 PureView – is a 41MP camera more likely to beat the iPhone than a projector beam?

The one theme that stood out when looking at devices was the idea of cross-media / cross-platformexperiences. Sony were showing off multiplayer gaming with console vs. smartphone, Microsoft showed a preview of Windows 8 seamlessly working across devices and there was a lot of talk about 2nd-screen experiences. Designing and executing these kind of experiences is probably the most exciting challenge in our industry.

Last but not least – the OS war. Apple were not here, as usual. Still odd, given that they currently define where the mobile industry is at, in terms of audience and revenue. They at least organized a party and were (possibly) bothered enough to time their iPad3 pre-announcement with Eric Schmidt’s keynote. Android was everywhere – again, no surprise there. I think that Nokia & Microsoft did well out of it: they have a good product, Skype is now on WP7 (beta), they get some sympathy for the mountain they have to climb, and Windows 8 impressed everyone.

by Sergio Falletti

We are delighted to announce the Windows Phone 7 app we produced for Domino’s Pizza UK & Ireland, as a new addition to the leading pizza delivery company’s impressive array of mobile platforms for ordering.  The release marks the 7th channel for mobile sales to complement Domino’s e-commerce website, as well as the first under Domino’s new partnership with Vexed’s recently acquired mobile division Future Platforms,  confirming our commitment to multi-platform excellence.

The app is being released in time for the launch of the new Nokia Lumia 800 with a view to reaching a new mobile market. Domino’s Multi Media Manager Nick Dutch says, “Domino’s is committed not only to monitoring and responding to consumer trends and needs but also staying ahead of the game.  With WP7 we see a great opportunity to get into the hands of loyal Nokia fans, who will be upgrading as WP7 launches. This is a great way for us to meet them there!”

The app allows easy mobile ordering for Domino’s customers using an integrated 3D secure payment system.  The app’s design is streamlined, smooth and has an emphasis on ease of navigation, in keeping with the Domino’s ordering interface design and branding.  It uses your location to find your nearest store’s details and supplies information on meal deals, providing a sophisticated yet simple user experience for WP7 customers.

Mobile has proved a hugely successful avenue for Domino’s; their iPhone app generated over £10m in sales in 2011 alone.  Paul Francis, Head of Commercial Systems at Domino’s, says, “Our brand lends itself brilliantly to mobile retail. 13% of all digital sales come though a tablet or smartphone so we know that for many customers, mobile is the preferred way of ordering. We have ambitious plans for 2012 and I am delighted that we can offer this new app for the Windows Phone 7 platform.  We look forward to hearing what our customers think.”

Founder of Vexed Digital, Richard Davies, says “Vexed Digital and Future Platforms are looking forward to innovating further across all platforms, as well as continuing to work on Domino’s overall e-commerce strategy, emphasising a commitment to forward thinking multi-platform digital solutions. “

-Domino’s Windows Phone 7 app is available from Windows Phone Marketplace.

-For more information on this, or other Vexed Digital and Future Platforms work please contact Xanthe at xanthe@vexeddigital.com

-For more information on Domino’s Pizza, please contact Domino’s Press Office by emailing pr@dominos.co.uk

More About Domino’s Pizza:

Domino’s Pizza UK & IRL plc is the leading player in the fast-growing pizza delivery market and holds the exclusive master franchise to own, operate and franchise Domino’s Pizza stores in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The first UK store opened in Luton in 1985 and the first Irish store opened in 1991. In April 2011, the Group acquired a majority stake in the exclusive master franchise to own, operate and franchise Domino’s Pizza stores in Germany.

As at 25 September 2011, there were 702 stores in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Germany. Of these, 553 stores are in England, 47 are in Scotland, 28 are in Wales, 19 are in Northern Ireland, one is on the Isle of Man, one is a mobile unit, 49 are in the Republic of Ireland and four are in Germany.

Founded in 1960, Domino’s Pizza is one of the world’s leading pizza delivery brands. Through its primarily franchised system, Domino’s Pizza operates a global network of more than 9,350 Domino’s Pizza stores in 70 international markets. Domino’s Pizza has a singular focus – the home delivery of pizza, freshly made to order with high quality ingredients.

Customers in the UK can order online at www.dominos.co.uk and customers in the Republic of Ireland can order online at www.dominos.ie. In addition, mobile customers can order by downloading Domino’s free iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone 7 apps.