Yesterday, Google announced it's dropping Google Sync, SyncML and Mail for Exchange. Google Sync will not be available for new users on January 30, 2013, but should remain active to all prior users.

In in their place, it will adopt CardDAV (for contacts) and suggest CalDAV (for calendars), IMAP (email).

Source: Official Google Blog

Before we get into a discussion about how it affects competitors and whatnot, let's look at Maemo devices. I can't claim to be knowledgeable about most of these. I've only recently purchased a N9 (remarkable phone). I'm aware of MfE, CalDAV and Google services being an available syncing option. However, should any of us flash or hard reset it, how could we get contacts syncing without CardDAV?