What is the advantage of syncing over the cloud?

Kinda obvious. You can restore your phone from anywhere even if your PC is dead if it is synced to the cloud. I backup to my PC also. Can't have too many backups.

 

I think if your iPhone is plugged in, on wifi, and has iCloud backups turned on, it does this automatically. Doesn't it? You can manually sync it as well, but I think mine has been doing routine backups whenever it is "idle" overnight.

The advantages are having very recent backups that occur without any action to you. If you break your phone or need to reset it for any reason you will likely have a very recent backup to restore to.

 

It's simply another choice of how to handle your data. If you're interested in iCloud go to Apple.com they have lots of good info there.

 

I recently had to take my iPad 3 to my local Apple store to have it changed under Applecare+.

I bought it on the release date in NYC while I was working out there and the case that I wanted (Otterbox Defender) wasn't yet available, so I stuck it in a cheap case while it was on order).

I then dropped it (in it's cheap case) and it damaged the screen.

Anyway, I made an appointment at the Apple store and backed the ipad up to iCloud about an hour before I left.

Ironically, the Defender turned up just before I left for the Apple store, so I took it with me.

They of course swapped it out (for a brand spanking new one as it happened), so while I was still in store I connected to their wifi, logged in and restored my iCloud backup from earlier that morning!

While it was restoring, I put it the Defender and half an hour later I walked out with a brand new, protected, restored iPad.