Originally Posted by
Global_Hi_Flyer
As far as I can tell, with the exception of the suggestion that cheltzel made, those contacts & calendar will end up on Google servers.
Just offering data points and not going to get into debate on companies' operating philosophies:
My HTC android phone with HTC Sense 4 interface can save contacts and calendar appointments on the phone "locally" without Google account association. You would use HTC Sync Manager to synchronize with Outlook, etc.
My older phone with CyanogenMod 9, which is built from the open source android, must associate contact with an account, which may be Google, Yahoo or Hotmail. I would expect Nexus devices to behave similarly.