The use of smartphones and handsets that carry a lot of information on them has started to take off. Some analysts expect more than 150 million of the devices to be sold during the next five years.

These intelligent handhelds are capable of storing large chunks of data. For example, Nokia's N91 music device launching in the first quarter of this year will have a hard drive with 4 gigabytes of data ¡V the ability to store 3,000 songs.

That makes it ever more important to be able to back up, or synchronize, the data on handsets with a desktop PC or laptop. Data synchronization hasn't always been an easy thing to do with a handset, especially the ones without an open operating system such as Symbian, Palm or Microsoft Windows Mobile.

"Synchronizing data with a mobile device has become extremely important," says David Wright, President of Avanquest Software¡¦s OEM Division, one of the leading synchronization software vendors. "It's a big market that will just get bigger. Mobile devices are becoming more and more open and there is a lot more you can do with them. Backup is becoming very important because these devices are holding important content."

Varied Solutions Users have their choice of a variety of solutions, including those provided by handset manufacturers or through third parties. Nokia has its own data synchronization technology, while Motorola has partnered with Avanquest Software. Avanquest and its competitors, including Mobile Action, also sell handset synchronization solutions through retail outlets or on the Web.

Microsoft provides a number of ways to synchronize data between a handset and a PC or laptop. Among the most recent is its ActiveSync 4.1 release, which enables synchronization between a PC and handsets running Windows Mobile 5.0.

Often the synchronization is done via a cable, although Bluetooth is becoming more common as a cable replacement. Wi-Fi also can be used with a handset running that technology, and infrared has been a standby.

Avanquest is seeing increasing interest from enterprises that want their mobile workers to be able to synchronize corporate data. The main synchronization product from Avanquest, formerly BVRP Software, is its Mobile PhoneTools software, which it sells to about a dozen handset manufacturers as well as through retail stores and online. Motorola is Avanquest's largest manufacturing partner, Wright says. Avanquest recently signed a deal to provide Mobile PhoneTools to one of China's leading OEMs, Haier Telecom. Handset OEMs are about 95 percent of Avanquest's synchronization business.

Mobile PhoneTools is validated for nearly every Motorola phone, including the RAZR V3, Wright says. Avanquest has had the relationship with the world's No. 2 handset manufacturer for about a decade, and it became more strategic for both companies in recent years because Motorola wanted to be able to synchronize all data on handsets, not just contacts and calendars, Wright says.

"Their vision has been, and the reality is today, that there is much more data on mobile devices," he says. That includes synchronizing photographs, music and other multimedia content.

Even though Mobile PhoneTools might be validated for a handset, it is up to the carrier that sells the handset whether or not to bundle the software with the phone, Wright says. Most high-end handsets, including the RAZR, come bundled with the software.

Portugal's Optimus brands the software with handsets it sells from Nokia, Philips, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Avanquest also provides other features, either with Mobile PhoneTools or as another application. PhoneTools enables the user to turn the cell phone into a modem for laptop connectivity, use a laptop to send SMS or MMS messages, synchronize with Outlook and import phone book contacts.

In addition, the company offers Multimedia Studio software that allows users to create ringtones on their computer and transfer them to a handset, as well as create wallpaper for phones from personal photos or images. The studio also allows photos taken with a cameraphone to be edited on a PC.

The Competition Avanquest's biggest competitor is the Nokia Data Suite, which the Finnish manufacturer developed for its own handsets. The increasing number of third-party competitors indicates that synchronization is becoming more important to end-users.

Mobile Action, which also principally works through OEMs, recently released Handset Manager version 9.2 aimed at music and cameraphones. The release includes Music Manager and Photo Wizard. The former is an MP3 player and file management software for music, and the latter includes special effects to personalize images for handsets. Music Manager is bundled with the Sony Ericsson w800 phones sold in China.

John Starkweather, a product manager for Microsoft Windows Mobile, says synchronization always has been a key feature of the software manufacturer's products. The ActiveSync software, which sits on the server as well as the desktop PC, enables automatic synchronization with Windows Mobile devices. The latest version enables USB 2.0 downloads so movie clips can be synced to a handheld in a few minutes.

ActiveSync allows synchronization both over the air on a wide-area connection or more directly via a cable, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. It also allows synchronization over the air to an enterprise server.

This kind of synchronization will become even more important in the future as smart devices proliferate.