I have finally finished moving from Google Apps to Outlook.com Custom Domains (as detailed here). (Well actually the old Google Apps is still running for a few legacy reasons, and forwarding emails)
So I used to use Google Apps Free (now not available) as it was pretty good, and better than Hotmail at the time, plus it was free, and well featured. But Google has been cutting features out of the free version, things which are essential like EAS support (there isn’t a suitable mobile optimised protocol to replace this in my opinion which I will discuss shortly).
So recently the BYOD Wi-Fi at work stopped working for Windows Phone devices as its not officially supported. Since then I have noticed that the Mail applications data usage has been very high (using 250mb+ in 2/3 weeks), which has pushed me over my data limit. This confused me because it never used to do that before we could use the BYOD Wi-Fi at work (which was turned on in February).
Turns out that between then and now, I have installed GDR2 which switches all Google Accounts from EAS to IMAP due to Google cutting EAS support, and IMAP is horrifically inefficient it seems. And its not just my data usage it was eating up either, it was also my battery life. Since moving back to a EAS account, my battery life has shot up.
This is just another example of Google cutting useful features, or making changes to existing products to try and encourage uptake of their other failing products. So in this case it is to ensure people use their Gmail app (on supported platforms which are just Android / iOS at the moment as far as I know), which gives Google more control.
And for those not on Android / iOS they either have to suffer, or switch. If they suffer it is likely they will blame Windows Phone for the high data usage, poor battery life, not Google, which also helps Google get people to switch to Android.