lastminute.com and developers CoolGorilla have announced the availability of six talking phrase books for mass-market mobile phones for resale via mobile operator portals, in conjunction with mobile services provider WIN. The phrase books are already available to consumers direct from the lastminute.com mobile Internet site.
The applications translate from English into French, Spanish, German, Greek, Italian and Portuguese. Each version has between 250 – 300 sound files covering all elements of their foreign experience, including Eating, Travel and Emergencies. Later this year more talking phrase books will be launched, including multiple versions communicating from one non-English language to another, eg French to Italian.
To use the phrase books, the user navigates to the appropriate phrase in English that they would like translated and presses Select.  The application then speaks the phrase in the foreign language through the consumers phone, in real time, and provides an additional text translation on screen. lastminute says the phrase is delivered perfectly in the foreign language, as the developers used native-language speakers in the creation of the phrase books. 
The application is equally suited to business customers who travel abroad and consumers on holiday. The applications are also ideal for generating repeat purchases, as each phrase book is charged separately.
This is truly a breakthrough in being smart on holiday says lastminute.com Head of Brand Development, Mark McCulloch. Instead of you having to flick through the pages of a phrase book to find what you want to say, you simply click your phone menu, select the phrase you need, and voila!
European operators interested in hosting the lastminute.com mobile phone phrasebooks should contact the team at WIN by email on: businessdevelopment@winplc.com