As it has been configured and customized in the G1, a number of Android's built-in applications (contacts, calendar, gmail) can only sync with a Google account indeed.
As far as I know nothing technically prevents you from installing other applications that would use different backends (other than the amount of time to develop such applications). If properly implemented (and barring bugs in other apps), it should be possible for your applications to override the system applications in quite a few ways (e.g. by responding to the same activity intents). Syncing directly a desktop, at the moment, might be a little bit tricky as there are probably not all the APIs in place to make such an app feature easy to implement, but doing it over a network (including an appropriately configure corporate wifi network) should be easy. You could store that data on the SD card, but be aware that in the default android model the SD card is accessible read-write to all applications. Any malicious application installed by one of your users will be able to read and modify any files that you store there. Looking at a "big picture" further in the future, if you have ideas about ways to make Android and the built-in applications more flexible for such a use case, as well as the time, skills and desire to do so, high-quality contributions to the Android source code are gladly accepted. Hope that helps. JBQ On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 4:39 PM, phs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Please forgive me if these issues have been raised before. I'm in the > early stages of assessing Android and its viability for our company. > So far, I'm excited about the potential, but I'm worried about > Google's insistence on controlling user data. > > The most interesting thing to me about Android is the idea of having > an open platform that could integrate with our company's computing > environment. Being able to sync directly with KDEPIM, and the various > groupware applications available on Linux is one of the most appealing > aspects of Android. > > From what I can gather so far, there's no way to store user data on > the SD card, and there is no way to sync user data directly to the > desktop or company server. > > Will it ever be possible to completely bypass Google's servers and > sync with the Linux desktop? We are not allowed (and never will be) > to let company data be stored on 3rd party sites. This is where > Windows Mobile (though I hate to admit it) is far more business- > friendly because an admin can always know exactly where user data > resides, and WM phones are easily backed up and synced to corporate > servers or the user's PC. > > So, what is the likelihood of having alternative Contacts and Calendar > apps that will store user data in a standard format to the SD card, > and a sync app that will allow syncing to the user's choice of > groupware (such as eGroupware, which we use now, Tine 2.0, Citadel, > etc.)? Such a solution could help make Android the mobile solution of > choice for many businesses. > > Unless user data can be tightly controlled, and there is Android > integration with groupware suites, I just can't imagine how Android > could ever becoming a viable corporate solution. > > -- phs > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
