15% of mobile apps launched while offline

I agree that having a data connection when abroad its a huge problem. The iPhone is carrier locked so yo cant buy a cheap pre-paid Sim card for the data, and even if it wasn't, you might travel to many countries specially if you are in Europe. I am going to travel soon, and I am worried that the trip would be more fun with all the iPhone apps, not just maps, but restaurants, and specially google translate, the only good use for that app is when you are abroad, but if you don´t have data, which you probably won´t.

I really hope that developers start building apps with offline mode, and is not just when you are on the subway, or traveling, maybe you have an ipod touch or an ipad sans 3g

International roaming is definitely an issue but I can't even depend on a data network connection in the UK where my iPhone is under contract. It is not unusual to either have no network connection or for the data connection not to be backed up with any bandwidth ("Server stopped responding"). This is with Orange and I will be leaving them this month for being basically useless.

I recently spent a couple weeks overseas and found that caching maps on the iPhone's Google Maps app worked fairly well. I would pan & zoom all over the area I planned on going, and for the most part, I was able to pull up the maps that I needed.

That being said, occassionally the maps would just crap out and I wouldn't be able to access an area I was able to only recently. But it worked better than the CityMaps2Go iPad/iPhone app, which had poorly detailed maps and long load times.

I thought about international roaming or one of those international Mi Fi rentals, but the rates were just too high for my casual purposes (maps, email, Twitter, etc.). In the end I really only missed out on the chance to check in on FourSquare in various exotic places and live tweet my vacation, which I'm totally OK with.

With more and more mobile providers shifting towards capped data rates, offline modes are also necessary to keep under the limit. I was in Chicago last summer a few months after I got my first iPhone and I was 500 KB away from going over my 200 MB cap because I was constantly using Google Maps to find where something was.

And yeah, the international roaming charges are ridiculous. I got a text from AT&T when I was in the Philippines that said "international data roaming charges are $24.99/KB". Thank goodness for the airplane toggle.

Great. just seen Woking on the map. trying to get over someone who lives there : but anyway, I always launch facebook while "offline" i don't know why. maybe im just dumb?

If you're looking for a great way to store maps on your iPhone and access them even without a network connection, The Cartographer App is a good one that links with your Google My Maps. I'm not affiliated in any way with this app or company, just a fan of the developer and the app.

yes app devs should think about offline use, but the mobile companies need to get international roaming rates figured out. Most of the time that I have data off it is because I am in some another country and don't want to pay 2 zillion dollars to find a nearby restaurant review.

I have an iPad 2 with both WiFi and 3G cellular but no cellular account so far. I have noticed that it sometimes takes a while to discover and join a WiFi network -- so long that I'm prompted to get cellular service.

This makes me wonder what will happen when I do get cellular service. Will my iPad jump to the erroneous conclusion that there is no WiFi and start burning my cel minutes?