Can you do better than an iPhone?

The iPhone isn’t winning purely on design anymore. Look at all the touchscreen iPhone clones that are rushing to market: LG Dare, HTC Daimond, Blackberry Thunder, Samsung Omnia, Garmin Nuvifone — to name just a few.

So what makes the iPhone so special? One word: apps. With so many handsets all looking alike, applications are the set to be key driver of our mobile future.

As I’m sure everyone on the planet is aware by now, the new iPhone is just days away:

And along with it comes the launch of a built-in application store. But the problem lies in the lack of apps in the mobile present.

The Clones Have an Early Lead

While iPhone apps number in the hundreds, Windows Mobile apps number in the thousands. This is where the clones have an immediate advantage.

For example, if you plan a trip this summer, here are some interesting Windows Mobile travel applications that might make your trip run a bit more smoothly:

Your own Personal Travel Assistant

WorldMate Live will manage your full itinerary, including travel arrangements and business meetings, making all details immediately accessible on your mobile device, and ensure a smooth trip by pushing alerts regarding imminent events like flight delays: [download via Handango]

WorldMate Live is a FREE application with some premium services supplied only to Gold level members.

Open membership - FREE - includes the WorldMate Live Outlook Add-In, WorldMate Live Website and many services contained within the WorldMate Live smartphone including itinerary management, world clocks, weather, currency converter, and a world map.

Gold membership - includes all of the above plus customized flight-update alerts, flight status, flight schedules, a travel directory and eligibility for customer support

Spb Traveler

Providing information on more than 10,000 cities world-wide, with services like up-to-date weather forecast, currency exchange rates, measurement converter and a flight assistant. [download via Handango]

• Multilingual Phrase Book (based on LingvoSoft.com phrase books)
• Trip Assistant
• World time
• Currency converter
• Clothing sizes
• Dial codes
• Tip calculator
• Meeting planner

Designed to help international travelers especially those of them who has many connection flights. It’s possible to save created trip schedule to the separate file and share it with colleagues and family if needed.

Trip Tracker

A boarding pass, ID and a Windows Mobile device running TripTracker can certainly lighten your load the next time you take off. [download via Handango]

A convenient way to carry along your trip essentials (like flight, hotel and rental car information) and track your trip-related activities (frequent flyer miles expenses & more). Include many of the same useful tools as spb Traveller (a currency converter, world time clock, etc.) .

But it gets even better when you team TripTracker for Windows Mobile with its desktop counterpart, TripTracker for Windows, which provide a comprehensive tool for all your travel needs. All you need is your toothbrush and you’re good to go!

• Printed itineraries
• Incoming, connecting, and returning flight details
• Hotel confirmation details
• Frequent Flyer numbers
• Rental car details
• Expense Tracking

TripTracker even supports custom travel events, such as limousine, rail or ferry rides, dining, meetings, entertainment and much more.

But the iPhone is gaining ground — fast!

Yes, iPhone is ready to travel (and with 3G + GPS, expect even more so). With everything from roadtrip planners to Zurich train schedules, the iPhone user experience just out classes the Window Mobile traveller. There’s a handy collection here at the Apple Web Apps Site:

And some more at iPhone Application List. We’ll have a closer look at some of these once the 3G iPhone is in our grubby little tester hands.

But there will be one clear advantage to having the application store built-in: if you get lost, you can download the application you need to get yourself back on the road again.

And this is just the beginning of the mobile apps war. We haven’t even seen the first of the Android or the new Open-Symbian ecosystem of applications yet. The battle will become less about which handset you carry, and more about the applications you command.

Tell us which travel apps you use and love (or hate). Have you ever used a travel app before? If you had an iPhone would you be more inclined to try than if you had a Windows Mobile device?