As of January 30, 2013, only users of the Google Apps for Business, Education and Government packages
can enable Google Sync sync on new mobile devices . On older devices, ActiveSync will continue to work.
Google Sync technology is designed to synchronize mail, contacts and calendar through MS Exchange ActiveSync protocol. For example, thanks to synchronization, the mobile phone gives out alerts on the arrival of new mail. MS Exchange ActiveSync is a proprietary protocol, the use of which requires licensing fees to be paid to Microsoft.
MS Exchange ActiveSync runs on iOS, Nokia, SyncML, Windows Phone and Windows Mobile devices, while Android devices and the corresponding Gmail, Calendar and Contacts applications
directly connect to Google Apps and do not require third-party protocol for synchronization.