I think this offline-first approach is very interesting, and definitely something that is overlooked in UI and app design. The OP is correct about telco and wif

I think this offline-first approach is very interesting, and definitely something that is overlooked in UI and app design. The OP is correct about telco and wifi signals being far from total coverage. There are lots of "holes" and in some places, it's more a metaphor of moving between islands that have connectivity. There is also another case of artificial data "scarcity" and that is the case no-data plans. To save money, I have a low cost ($10 and up) minutes-only phone plan. With apps that work with the offline-first mentality, being offline could be almost invisible on a 1-hour commute between the wifi at home and the office (no, I'm not one of those people who needs to read and write tweets in real-time). Sometimes it is also a hardware issue. The first time I tried to use my phone as a true GPS with MotionX (this was 4 years ago on an iPhone 3G), I discovered it's not possible. The app does download maps and cache them so you can go hiking out of cell range, but the iPhone does not support GPS-only operation. Either I leave the radios on and it depletes its battery looking for a signal, or I put it in airplane mode and GPS is disabled. I don't believe a GPS-only configuration is possible even today. Another point is that offline-first does not only apply to smart-phone apps, although that is probably the biggest problem space. But there are a lot of people who commute with laptops, and who could maybe live without a 4G dongle if their apps supported it. I have also thought a lot about the sailboat cruising community (see the last sailboat picture in the OP). There are many recreational boaters out wandering from port to port, using sparse wifi and sailmail (very limited email services via marine HF SSB radio). A lot of them blog and send text and email to their family, friends, and followers, but have to struggle to time their online windows. Just imagine a laptop app that lets people write emails and blog posts whenever they want (in the middle of an ocean), and maybe it uploads the text to their blog via sailmail immediately (but slowly), and then adds the pics automatically when they get to port and connect to wifi (or have a 4G dongle within range of a cell on the coast). So not only are there online and offline states, but also limited bandwidth states such as sailmail (it allows short text emails in both directions, but not images).