HTC Sync worked perfectly before the 2.2 update and there is no reason that it should not do so now. Many Android users do not desire to sync their confidential business and/or personal data to the google cloud. Some of them cannot because their phone contains sensitive company data and some simply do not want to risk putting their private info online.
So use EAS instead.
I manage two google apps domains. One for the 60 member non-profit organization that I manage as the technology guy (all volunteer), and one for my wife's consulting company. I work as a software engineer for my day job. In my opinion, from a support and accessability perspective I feel data is more secure when synced to a federated data source, i.e. google apps (docs, email, sites, calendar, contacts, etc).
You can keep your data private all you'd like on your home computer. From a data/disaster recovery perspective, as the actual support guy, you can have whatever backup solution you'd like, but a real-time background sync for all your data returns immense value to the joe schmoe user and the organization. Keep your data offline as much as you'd like, but if you think that pop3 is secure.... think again. And seriously? Contacts and calendars? Unless you're a sleeper agent for the old-school KGB (hey, not so far fetched apparently) I can't imagine security requirements so stringent that you can't use gmail. Oh, hey, even sleeper agents can't stay private and secure from the appropriate agencies anyway.
In the end, data integrity relying on a cable/tether is pretty archaic. I
do agree with you though--it should work. My question is.... I simply do not understand who in their right mind (assuming you're a normal, non-secret agent for a potentially hostile government, non-terrorist) would think they're better off by limiting themselves to a cable based sync.
Repeated failure to update Google Play system update
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