iCloud address book sync for Snow Leopard

I've now read it, thanks! I think if we start with the requirement of synchronizing OS X Address Book with iOS Addresses without using iTunes cable sync, the only options are:

• iCloud (if you are willing to live with Lion)
• Gooogle Apps + Spanning Sync

The big change since your last revision is Mountain Lion is out, and it won't run on the older MacBooks. The existence of ML means Lion is end-of-life, so it's not only PPC users that are in the cold and will need to choose betwee buying a new Mac or going Google.

In this case I do need to plan ahead, and I'm confident my sources are correct. Apple might add in support for 64bit machines with Intel graphics, but that's a bit unlike them. On the other hand, this entire ML roll out is new, so old rules may not apply.

Here are my requirements, given for various reasons I need to have a plan in place around mid-May for my corporate user base (3 kids, 2 parents, dog is out of luck):

1. Not Lion: I use Lion, but I don't want to inflict it on the family. Mountain Lion or Snow Leopard only.
2. We don't want to replace the MacBook - so that means Snow Leopard is required.
3. Whatever we do, it has to sync to all of our iOS devices as well as our OS X devices. That rules out iCloud for the iOS devices, since iCloud is incompatible with the MacBook (given the no Lion requirement).
4. We currently use Google calendars and Google Apps extensively, and despite Google's marked turn to the dark side we're stuck there unless Apple offers something we can use or Google drives iOS users away (they might).
5. That leaves an ActiveSync (Exchange) solution. Apple's enterprise ambitions mean they have to support ActiveSync for iOS going forward. So Google Apps ActiveSync will work with our iOS devices. Snow Leopard is harder -- Snow Leopard's ActiveSync support is broken. Mountain Lion may be better, in which case we can use ML ActiveSync on two machines. For Snow Leopard we'll have to pay Spanning Sync for their Google Sync to Address Book/Contacts and Calendar support. (I saw your Chronosync comment; I own that app, it doesn't help with this problem.)

So it looks like Apple's termination of MacBook support in the Mountain Lion era will push our family off iCloud and onto Google/ActiveSync/Spanning Sync!