Google announced some days ago, that they will drop the support for their free customers of Gmail and Google Apps by 30th of January 2013. In particular Windows Phone users are affected by this decision. It is to mention, that existing devices, that are already connected via Google Sync, will keep on working. Only new devices will not be able to setup sync connections via Google Sync. More information about this can be found on the help pages of Google.
What are your options now?
- For Android users nothing will change. Just setup your Google account and everything will work as usually.
- New iOS-users will have to use IMAP, CardDav and CalDav to keep their stuff in sync. CardDav support requires iOS 5+.
- Users with new Windows Phones will have the following options:
- Move your stuff to outlook.com (formerly known as Windows Live Hotmail). Microsoft is still offering Exchange ActiveSync and it’s still for free.
- Pay Google ~ 40 EUR a year and upgrade your account to „Google Apps for business“. AFAIK this will only work for accounts with own domains (i.e. your.name@seventeenfour.com instead of your.name@gmail.com).
- Pay Microsoft ~ 45 EUR a year and switch to their Office365-platform (Exchange Online plan).
- Wait, until Microsoft will offer CardDav and CalDav support. Only time will show, if this ever will happen.
As all my devices are currently connected via Google Sync, I can postpone the decision. I still don’t know, what I will do, when I’ll get a new device, i.e. one of those new Windows 8 tablets. 🙂