So after some fiddling around I figured out a solution to my question by programmatically rendering each gridview and header:

Using a basic layout like this (since the number of gridviews needed is unknown):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
        <LinearLayout
            android:id="@+id/appListFragment"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:orientation="vertical" />
</ScrollView>

And a buildAdapter method in the fragment like so:

boolean headerSectionsRendered = false;
...
private void buildAdapter() {
    String gridViewIdString;

    /* fill the adapter */
    for (String category : mApps.keySet()) {
      /* get all of the apps for current category */
      mAppAdapter = new AppsAdapter(getActivity(), mApps.get(category));

      /* begin programmatically creating the view */
      LinearLayout appListLayout = (LinearLayout) getActivity()
          .findViewById(R.id.appListFragment);

      /* create the section header */
      TextView appSectionHeader = new TextView(getActivity());
      appSectionHeader.setLayoutParams(new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(
          LinearLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,
          LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
      appSectionHeader.setText(category);
      LinearLayout.LayoutParams params = (LinearLayout.LayoutParams) appSectionHeader
          .getLayoutParams();
      params.setMargins(15, 8, 15, 5); // left, top, right, bottom
      appSectionHeader.setLayoutParams(params);
      appSectionHeader.setTextSize(16);

      /* create GridView for the current section*/
      GridView appSectionGridView = new GridView(getActivity());
      appSectionGridView.setLayoutParams(new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(
          LinearLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT,
          LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
      appSectionGridView.setVerticalSpacing(10);
      appSectionGridView.setHorizontalSpacing(10);
      appSectionGridView.setNumColumns(3);
      appSectionGridView.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
      appSectionGridView.setStretchMode(GridView.STRETCH_COLUMN_WIDTH);
      appSectionGridView.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View v, int position,
            long id) {
          /* position of clicked app and adapter it was located in */
          showApp(position, parent.getAdapter());
        }
      });

      if (!headerSectionsRendered) {
        headerCount++;
        appSectionGridView.setAdapter(mAppAdapter);
        appListLayout.addView(appSectionHeader);
        appListLayout.addView(appSectionGridView);
      }
      if (headerCount == mApps.keySet().size()) {
        headerSectionsRendered = true;
      }
    }
  }

With an Apps adapter that looks like this:

private class AppsAdapter extends BaseAdapter {

    private final Activity mContext;
    private final App[] apps;

    public AppsAdapter(Activity context, App[] appList) {
      mContext = context;
      apps = appList;
    }

    public int getCount() {
      return apps.length;
    }

    public App getItem(int position) {
      return apps[position];
    }

    public long getItemId(int position) {
      return position;
    }

    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
      View gridItem;

      gridItem = new View(mContext);
      /* app_cell is the layout for the individual items */
      gridItem = inflater.inflate(R.layout.app_cell, null);
      ImageView appIcon = (ImageView) gridItem.findViewById(R.id.app_cell_icon);
      TextView appTitle = (TextView) gridItem.findViewById(R.id.app_cell_title);

      if (appIcon != null && appTitle != null) {
        mContext.loadImage(apps[position].getIcon(), appIcon);
        appTitle.setText(apps[position].getTitle());
      }

      return gridItem;
    }

    @Override
    public int getViewTypeCount() {
      return 1;
    }
  }

I did not include all the specific details of how I implemented this solution, but if you would be curious to learn more or have any comments or suggestions please let me know!

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I will try to give you a snippet, but to be honest, there is no point of using a GridView for your case since all you items are there on the screen anyway. You can create a couple of LinearLayouts in a small loop that will get the result.

I would advice you to set the columnWidth on Runtime according to the screen width.

And your adapter should be fed with the column width and height to set them when inflating child views. And in this case, you need to get rid of numColumns. Remember that using numColumns along with columnWidth makes no sense especially when you want to fill the whole space. If you want to set the numColumns, remove the columnWidth.

SOLUTION:

Here is the outcome: First, we create our layout. In my case, it is the MainActivity's layout and is called activity_main.xml. (Notice there is no GridView because I'll add that later in code):

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/header"
        android:background="#444"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:text="Dynamic Static GridView" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/footer"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:background="#444"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
        android:text="Shush" />

</RelativeLayout>

Our GridView element's layout is here in the item_grid.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:background="#fff"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/text"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />

</RelativeLayout>

Now the trick is in MainActivity (I have commented some of the code for you to understand):

package com.example.dynamicstaticgridview;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.GridView;
import android.widget.RelativeLayout;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.graphics.Color;

/**
 * @author Sherif elKhatib
 *
 */
public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    private static String items[]; //these are temporary items :p do not use them
    static {
        items = new String[7*7];
        for(int i=0;i<7*7;i++) {
            items[i] = String.valueOf(i);
        }
    }

    int numberOfColumns = 7; //defaulting to 7, you can change it when you know
    int numberOfRows = 7; //defaulting to 7, you can change it when you know
    GridView mGrid;
    ArrayAdapter<String> mAdapter;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        RelativeLayout.LayoutParams params = new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
        params.addRule(RelativeLayout.BELOW, R.id.header);
        params.addRule(RelativeLayout.ABOVE, R.id.footer);
        mGrid = new GridView(this) {
            @Override
            protected void onLayout(boolean changed, int l, int t, int r, int b) {
                super.onLayout(changed, l, t, r, b);
                if(!calculated)
                    getDimens();
            }
        };
        mGrid.setVerticalSpacing(0);
        mGrid.setHorizontalSpacing(0);
        mGrid.setStretchMode(GridView.NO_STRETCH);
        mGrid.setBackgroundColor(Color.rgb(100, 10, 10));
        ((RelativeLayout)findViewById(R.id.rootview)).addView(mGrid, params);
    }

    private int mCellWidth;
    private int mCellHeight;
    boolean calculated = false;
    protected void getDimens() {
        calculated = true;
        //here you might have some rounding errors
        //thats why you see some padding around the GridView
        mCellWidth = mGrid.getWidth()/numberOfColumns;
        mCellHeight = mGrid.getHeight()/numberOfRows;
        mGrid.setColumnWidth(mCellWidth);
        mGrid.setNumColumns(numberOfColumns);
        mAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.item_grid, R.id.text, items) {
            @Override
            public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
                GridView.LayoutParams params = null;
                if(convertView == null) {
                    params = new GridView.LayoutParams(mCellWidth, mCellHeight);
                }
                convertView = super.getView(position, convertView, parent);
                if(params != null) {
                    convertView.setLayoutParams(params);
                }
                return convertView;
            }
        };
        mGrid.setAdapter(mAdapter);
    }
}

COMMENTS: You'd really better find a decent algorithm to choose mCellWidth, mCellHeight, numberOfColumns, and numberOfRows.

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