re-reading the title, i realize that you want to bypass the whole GPRS/WiFi/3G connection mode and use good ol' USB cable. if you want to use your PC, then you have to use the method you mentioned but you can swap outlook with an email client that uses ical-compatible calendar. e.g. Mozilla Thunderbird (with Lightning add-on) or Mozilla Sunbird.
on another note, if you're using Sony Ericsson, then i can recommend
MyPhoneExplorer, which has an option to sync to Google calendar.
Organizer with calendarview and direct sync to Outlook, Sunbird, Thunderbird, Windows calendar(Vista), Rainlendar, Lotus Notes, Google, Tobit David and net shared calendars (WebDAV, FTP, local)-website