palmOne has announced that they will be discontinuing their HotSync in favor for the more hotter, and free, SyncML synchronization protocol instead. This is a strong indicator that palmOne is moving more away from the standard PDA camp and headed over the hills and into the valley of the smartphones. SyncML is a very popular protocol already used by many cell phone companies and a major plus for this technology is it’s ability to allow for updates Over The Air (OTA).

This will allow palmOne users to update their phones with the latest software without a cradle in addition to syncing their data with their computer. This is also good news for Mac users, also, since palmOne has dropped support for them recently. All in all, palmOne is moving in the right direction on this one and hopefully they’ll see the light fully on keeping up with Microsoft and the market when they reach that sun drenched valley just over yonder.