Patent ID: 8233895

Claim:
A method for use in transferring user data associated with a user account from a first mobile communication device having a first personal information manager (PIM) application to a second mobile communication device having a second PIM application, the first mobile communication device including a memory, an interface configured to receive a removable memory card, and first and second wireless transceivers, the method comprising: maintaining storage of an encryption/decryption key in the memory; refraining from maintaining encryption/decryption key in the removable memory card; maintaining data synchronization of the user data, via a wireless communication network using the first wireless transceiver, between the first mobile communication device having the PIM application and a host server; for the data synchronization: regularly receiving and storing updates to the user data in the memory for use in the first PIM application; for updates to the user data, updating a copy of the user data stored in the removable memory card in an encrypted format in accordance with the encryption/decryption key; causing the encryption/decryption key to be transmitted to the second mobile communication device via the second wireless transceiver; after the removable memory card is transferred from the first mobile communication device to the second mobile communication device, copying the user data from the removable memory card to memory of the second mobile communication device; and maintaining data synchronization of the user data, via the wireless communication network, between the second mobile communication device having the second PIM application and the host server.