Mike Elgan writes an interesting piece in Computerworld on the cell phone-PC Connection that, if nothing else, points up just how much of an interesting transition we are in out here in mobile land. His thesis is that PC makers, especially those rushing to join the handheld market, should make cell phones work better with PCs rather than just adding new features that most users don’t take advantage of anyway.

Two examples from the article stand out for me:

He argues, well, that quite a few cell phones can serve as broadband modems, and that most users don’t take advantage of this. I think one of the reasons for that is the complexity that exists in doing so. But Elgan goes further and points to some interesting “awareness” technology that would let the computer know when you’re close by or not, that was abandoned because of a lack of hardware support.

In the second example, he points to solutions that avoid syncing in the current traditional sense, but instead lets you use the cell phone as your document/data transport device to move from location to location, having your data and your mobility at the same time. Intriguingly, this seems to ignore the entire movement to “the cloud” where your data resides out there somewhere and you can access it from any device, anytime, assuming of course you have connectivity. As we keep moving higher and higher into the cloud we’re moving more and more away from the traditional syncing methods. Business and the enterprise is still the long term key here, and watching that transition take place is fascinating. I created quite a stir with my “game over” post on Apple and its recent announcements. If you’re paying attention, Apple is working to bridge the enterprise and consumer markets as it carries us further and further into the cloud (or is that the Air?). Loren Heiny has some interesting thoughts on this as well.

I’m going to be writing more on this in the coming weeks, but I’ve really been enjoying working with the Beta of Evernote’s Web solution that allows me to collect data and seamlessly have it synced between my Tablet PC, my desktop, and my handheld. For me, personally, it is a game changer and I think that is the type of game we’re all headed for in the future. Provided, again, that you have connectivity.