After studying the SQLite functionality of Android I was surprised to discover that you cant connect directly to a 'real' database from an Android device; even though this can be done in many ways in Java on other platforms, it doesnt work on Android as trying to use something like a JDBC driver throws a sql exception.

Two questions, then, for thsoe very experienced with Android, Java, and databses in general:

1) Why has no-one written a driver that allows an Android device to connect to a MySQL, Oracle, or other remotely-hosted db directly?
2) As it apparently isnt possible, how do apps like Google Maps etc work if no direct connection to a 'real' db is involved?