The Motorola Cliq is going to be a highly-sought device when it's released later this year, but we haven't heard about how users will manage and sync their multimedia files. Motorola said Friday it has tapped Nero to craft its desktop media software, and, from what I've seen, it looks pretty good.A lot of the appeal of the Android operating system is being able to do much of the syncing and management over the air, as the G1 and myTouch 3G simply have you punch in your Google account information and all your contacts and calendars are auto-magically brought to the phone. Nero said OTA has its role, which will grow significantly over the next few year, but it's not the right setting for transferring music or videos. Motorola will be using Nero's software for its Media Link software, which will enable users to manage their multimedia files with the Cliq and other Moto phones.

The user interface is about what you'd expect from this type of software, and it was easy to import, find, mange, and make playlists from your files. There was a cool little ringtone maker that was simple to use, and you can purchase songs from Amazon's MP3 store within the software. Media Link also makes it simple to get photos off your phone, and there are also basic photo-editing tools for cropping, rotating, red-eye reduction, and more. There's some social networking integration as well, but I thought the latest Real Player software was a bit stronger on this front.

Videos can be transferred with the Media Link software as well, but if you want the really good stuff like automatic transcoding for the best resolution and screen size, you'll have to pony up $39.99 for the premium version. The premium version also includes calendar and contact synching, but Android is pretty adept already at that over the air.

Of course, the major problem for companies like Research In Motion, Palm, and Motorola is that the iTunes ecosystem is so strong, and many smartphone users already have much of their media tied into Apple's software. Media Link does enable users to import playlists from iTunes, as well as Windows Media Player, so that's a step in the right direction. RIM has essentially ceded the heavy lifting of multimedia syncing to iTunes with the Media Sync Software and Palm has also been fighting hard to enable its webOS customers to use Apple's software, but there should be a growing market for alternative mobile media management programs. I think iTunes is pretty bloated and a chore to use on Windows, so here's hoping something like Media Link can take off.