Google’s sync changes are going to screw Gmail users on Windows Phone

First off, Microsoft can fix this problem themselves, by supporting standards such as CalDAV and CardDAV. Microsoft is still very poor at supporting open standards over their proprietary ones. That needs to change for their own users sake, because Microsoft is not the only game in town anymore, and they can't seriously expect Google and Apple to pay them for the privilege of using their own proprietary stuff in the future, when they can use their own.<p>Second, WP has like 2-3% market share globally. Would you expect Google to support IE6 if it had a 2% market share? Google actually stopped supporting IE6 when it had 20%.

&#62; Apple and Google both support CalDAV and CardDAV natively, but Microsoft doesn’t support either.<p>Sounds like Microsoft's problem, not Google's. This is what Microsoft gets for not supporting existing open standards. In any case, surely they support IMAP? This seems like it affects google calendar/contacts and not gmail.<p>EDIT: I guess IMAP doesn't have push notifications, but that's hardly a crucial feature.

That should be "screw gmail <i>consumer</i> users on <i>new</i> windows phones" - existing consumer users, and all current and future business/government/educations users don't appear to be impacted.<p>From the original post: <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.ca/2012/12/winter-cleaning.html" rel="nofollow">http://googleblog.blogspot.ca/2012/12/winter-cleaning.html</a><p>"Google Sync was designed to allow access to Google Mail, Calendar and Contacts via the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync® protocol... Starting January 30, 2013, consumers won't be able to set up new devices using Google Sync; however, existing Google Sync connections will continue to function. Google Sync will continue to be fully supported for Google Apps for Business, Government and Education. Users of those products are unaffected by this announcement."

CardDAV and CalDAV are not really good replacements to EAS. And IMAP is really pathetic. I'm on board with open standards, but if the proprietary one is better, then I'd like to use it.<p>Google's just using the "open" argument to screw people. If it's related to "open standards being better", drop EAS support on business accounts too. That'd be a commitment. This is just a chess move to drive the market to their direction.

CardDAV and CalDAV are open standards, no? Sounds like it's Microsoft's turn to step up to the plate.

"... Windows Phone users can choose to set up IMAP for Gmail, but this won’t support push mail. That renders the connection useless."<p>This is so incredibly hyperbolic. You still get mail right? Just after a minute instead of "instantly." If you need real-time communication pick up the phone or use a chat client.

Well, looks like I'll be switching to Outlook.com fully. I've been using it with my Gmail pushed to it for a while now, but I've often found myself wondering why I should be routing through Gmail in the first place. Without the ability to sync directly to my phone in the future, why bother? Its just really sucks having to bounce from service to service every few years because the boys can't play nice.

This might have something to do with Office 2013 supporting Exchange ActiveSync connections. My first thought was "awesome, Outlook calendar/contacts/mail push support without having to pay for Google Apps for business to use the Outlook Sync connector!". Google probably saw this as an attack on their business model.

Or: Microsoft is screwing their customers by not supporting open standard protocols.

More info on CalDAV &#38; CardDav (both standards)<p><a href="http://caldav.calconnect.org/standards.html" rel="nofollow">http://caldav.calconnect.org/standards.html</a><p><a href="http://carddav.calconnect.org/standards.html" rel="nofollow">http://carddav.calconnect.org/standards.html</a>

Situation seems to also affect Windows 8, RT, and Office..<p><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/gmail-loses-google-sync-how-windows-8-rt-office-are-affected-7000008846/" rel="nofollow">http://www.zdnet.com/gmail-loses-google-sync-how-windows-8-r...</a>

I've been delaying my migration off of Gmail. Google just accelerated it considering I'm moving all of my machines and family/friend machines in the next few months to Win8. Depending on how easy my final migration turns out to be, I may move everyone.<p>Thanks Google for the forced motivation.

Doesn't this screw over iPhones users too? I'm currently using EAS with my free Google Apps account in order to get mail, contacts and calendar. Mail is easy through IMAP, but calendar and contacts are difficult to do otherwise, at least last I tried it in 2008. (Unless Google or Apple changed how those things work on the iPhone recently)<p>With the recent Google Apps announcement and this, looks like the bean counters have taken over at Google.

I stopped using Google's products when I realized how much they tracked everyone. It's pretty weird not knowing what information they have about everyone and the fact that everyone is OK with that.<p>This is clearly a move to try to ensure that the Windows Phone market share doesn't grow. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out and if Microsoft can get people to switch to Outlook.com instead of Gmail.

Why is everybody saying that they will only screw Gmail users on Windows Phone? As an iPhone user they will screw me too, because I will not longer have push if I use the Mail.app. The alternative is using the Gmail app of course, but that will only lock up users.<p>How much time until they announce that ALL the current users won't have this feature anymore?

Google really should think about the majority of their freeloading users when they do things like this!<p>... wait a moment...