In October we launched the Fast Track to the Mobile App Design Challenge, an international competition for the Windows Phone to design new apps to help people get their work done. We received amazing and inspiring submissions from to-do lists to contact managers to shutting notifications off so you can focus on actually working. After hours of review and deliberation by our fantastic judges Scott Wilson (MINIMAL), Jill Nussbaum (Barbarian Group), René Schulte (Schulte Software Development), Mike Kruzeniski (Microsoft), Brandon Watson (Microsoft) and Eric Ludlum (Core77), we are proud to announce our five winners and 95 finalists!

All winners and finalists will receive a 1-year subscription to the App Hub development community and the first 25 finalists who launch their apps in the Windows Marketplace will become our Notable Finalists, scoring a Windows Phone. Winners not only receive a subscription to App Hub, Windows Phone and XBox 360 with Kinect, but they also get an app development deal to fast track their apps to the Windows Marketplace. Keep checking back over the next couple months as we start Phase 2 of the competition: following the winners along the development path from design to launching their apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Without further ado...

WINNERS

Bridge - an integrated mobile tool for small team collaboration across time zones.

App Designer:

Ying Wei, Toh Seoul, South Korea (originally Ipoh, Malaysia)

Portfolio: www.coroflot.com/yingwei

LinkedIn: kr.linkedin.com/in/yingwei Credits:

Dennis Park, Visual Designer

Ying Wei is a passionate User Experience designer specializing in user research, user interface and interaction design. She received her Bachelor's degree in Interface Design from Multimedia University, Malaysia in 2007 and her Master's degree in Interaction Design from Kookmin University, Seoul, South Korea in Feb 2011. She was an interaction designer at Autodesk in Shanghai where her responsibility is to assist the development of the global products and workflows such as AutoCAD Map3D and Digital Cities projects in a global team spreading over US, Canada, and China.

Currently, she is working as an information architect in Seoul. Ying Wei loves traveling and exploring different countries and cultures.

Blackbelt - a level-up based business app aimed at improving company productivity and employee self awareness through objectives, incentives and competition.

App Designer:

Mark William Salerno Milan, Italy (originally Melbourne, Australia)

Industrial Design: www.designsalerno.net

Graphic Design: www.marksmanstudios.com

New freelancer Mark William Salerno set out to become a car designer yet could not deny his passion for mixed design disciplines in Arts, Graphic, Multimedia and Industrial Design.

Earning 'The Man' nickname at Design Innovation Milano, he became an ID project leader and international tutor. Moving to the design capital in 2006, he completed a master course with Alfa Romeo at the famous Scuola Politecnica di Design. An upbringing in Australia excelled his natural skills with studies at Swinburne TAFE and Monash University.

Utlizing all facets of art and design, he continues to develop a fine 'explore-filter-evolve' cycle of creative labor.

Social Mints - easily track and measure what people are saying about a company, brand or new product across the social media landscape.

App Designer:

Pratik Kothari Virginia Beach, VA www.gotechark.com www.moodswinglife.com

Pratik Kothari works as Director of IT for reQuire, LLC and also runs his own company Techark Consultancy. Kothari holds a Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Science and is passionate about solving challenging problems.

Microsoft has recognized Kothari as a Developer Hero for his extremely popular Windows Phone apps: Mood Swing, Dress Pal, Smart Goals, RedMinder and ...honey, I got it! All his apps are very practical and based out of necessities in one's daily life. An AppHub Spotlight on Kothari's apps is available here.

Rhythmatic - an easy to use and powerful business cash-flow management mobile app.

App Designer:

Geof Harries Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada http://subvert.ca

Geof Harries is a designer who is most commonly hired to research, plan and conceive user interfaces for enterprise software products. When not working on client projects, he and the team at Subvert develop their own commercial software products built on the Microsoft technology platform. Outside of work, Geof loves to spend time with his wife and three children. He occasionally can be found in the Yukon wilderness atop his mountain bike, cross-country skis or snowboard.

car-pal+ - helps road warriors track fuel efficiency, find the nearest gas station, and monitor road alerts and maintenance history.

App Designer:

Alan Asher Denver, Colorado www.linkedin.com/in/alanasher Credits:

Chris Bartlett

Alan Asher is an aspiring 28-year-old entrepreneur and digital-media designer whose passion is interface design and user experience. He enjoys designing and consulting from start-up ventures to enterprise-level applications.

With six years of business and technology experience in the financial-services industry, Alan looks forward to meeting new people, learning from new opportunities, and engaging in new challenges. His other interests include finance, technological trends and photography.

Alan is also an active member of his local community, dedicating personal time to programs like Junior Achievement to cultivate young business leaders of the future.

We can't reveal too much about these apps before they're launched, but here are the finalists we'll also be keeping an eye on:NOTABLE FINALISTS

1. Travel Trove by Peggy Fung, USA & Arcadius Kazimierski 2. Project Mosaic by Matt Cavanagh, South Africa 3. 1tap2send by Valentin Keleti, Romania & Oana Csertus 4. YouTube Download by Domenico Rosito, Italy 5. Meeting Planner by Sébastien Lachance, Canada 6. Get Reimbursed by Pratik Kothari, USA 7. MetroDiff by Leo Cutugno, Argentina & Bobby Harrell 8. mHealth by Cheng Lei Lim, Singapore 9. SMS Scheduler by Muhammad Naveed, Pakistan 10. TASKMASTER by Arjun Ganesan, India 11. SlickFlow by Kenneth Bugeja, Malta 12. Days Until by Monika Yadav, India 13. Draw & Tell by Wei Liang Lin, Singapore 14. Take A Break by Aadhar Bhalinge, India

FINALISTS

News Float by Martin Jordan, Germany Tabula by Jordan Lang, USA Phlock by Luke Farinella, USA EXPENZ by Nick Harewood, UK Eye Candy by Jonathan Turner, USA Twee by Mark Salerno, Italy Footnote by Ivo Weevers, Netherlands DREAM COUNTDOWN by Sherwood Forlee, USA Tasks Space by Maria Smolkov, Israel FUNNEL/ Task Management App by Bastien Thuillot , France Sous. by Jaycob Cratchley, Australia Foxtrot by Krishna Kumar, India InspirEngine by Abhilaksh Lalwani, UK Clipon! by Pragam Rathore, India Packed by Hei-Lun Lee, USA ACENTO by Julio Gomez, Colombia CHANGE by Maria Zenkevich, Belarus Switchboard by Jeremy Taylor, Australia art department : black book /nyc by Christine Stocking, USA Endeavour - Effectively complete relevant tasks. by Jip Eilbracht, Netherlands Quick Read Recipes by Ed Lewis, USA Time Tracking by Kathryn Mcelroy, USA Go Dark by David Bourke, UK FLOPPY by Jamaal Pascall, USA TODOHOY by Carlos Barreto, Paraguay Rotaraction - "What you can do to get active and give back to your community" by Simon-Paul Ridgeway , South Africa Mathflow by Fabian Tamp, Australia Vlock by Arjun Shetty, India Time alert by Robert Figura, Australia Change by Regimantas Vegele, Denmark Collab by Jose Virgilio Pocholo De Villa, Singapore color by Adam Wrigley, USA My Projects by Eric Quezado, Brazil health plan maker by Shiho Ishizuka, Japan Elephis by Derek Lakin, UK Taskit Task Manager by Aaron Coppedge-Thomas, USA WeatherMe by Jeffrey Bergier, USA MyStudies by Daniel Mahon, UK Chinese Tones by Declan Talbert, UK Shout! by Casey Maupin, USA Scarlet by Ramda Yanurzha , USA WinURlyf ! by Vineeta Rath , India The Spot by Michael Okyere, Netherlands ORGANICE by Chaitrasri Rao, USA The Coordinator by Adriel Mingo, USA EZ Bib Vision by Jose Morales, USA Knom by Nicholas Paredes, USA Link Us by Micah Iverson, USA Microsoft Answers - Windows Phone by Jose Morales, USA workspace by Suganth Chellamuthu, India Chron@Task by Antti Lindström, Finland Switch-Shift opt.(Business Shift or Business Switch) by Anthony Jones, USA Warm-up by Andy Stump, Germany Field Connect by Pratik Kothari, USA Doodle - Scheduling Made Easy! by Pratik Kothari, USA Journey Hub by Narudom Techaval, Thailand FollowUpon by Nikolas Beaudin, Canada Yoga @ Work by Monika Yadav, India School Calendar/Timetable app by Stuart Lodge, UK SchoolFlow by Stuart Lodge, UK Work Smarter by Colin Eberhardt , UK Smart Grid X by Usman ur Rehman Ahmed, Pakistan Lunch Meet by Timothy Wright, USA TGIF by Gilbert Chan, Canada Automatic Shift by Roscoe Warner, USA PorFavor by Mike Padilla, USA Password Saver by Noyman Avila , USA Neurona by Alejandro Limon Garcia, Mexico SQL Connector by Bobby Harrell, USA Background Tweeter by Robert Whitfield, UK Paradigm App by Samuel Ho, Canada defrag by Paolo Kurtis Tan, Phillipines Overalt by Anthony Gabas, Canada teamplay by Sebastian Reichl, Austria Take A Break by Aadhar Bhalinge, India Now Trending by Monika Yadav, India Natural Information Discovery by Steven Hoober, USA readle by Srikar Doddi, USA

All finalists are eligible to become Notable Finalists (and win a Windows Phone) by being one of the first 25 who launch their app in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Core77 will feature a gallery of all the Fast Track Apps that have been published by mid-February at http://fasttrackapp.core77.com.