Not intentionally. It has sorta happened to be that way so far. Apparently this internet thing has been adopted widely.

But the intention is to be able to be fully productive with only an occasional or intermittent internet connection.

Really developed countries: We have internet where we stay. This is more common than we expected.

Developed countries: We use mobile broadband for occasional net connectivity on demand, and use email and SMS to notify us about important events. So far all of our services are manage hosted so I've never gotten a "the server is down" message.

Undeveloped Countries: Plan is to check in once a week with a cybercafe or wifi hotspot.

GSM is a global standard and so, with an unlocked iPhone you can get pre-paid SIMs with dataplans.

Fortunately for everyone Apple is now selling unlocked iPhones as a matter of course in countries with multiple iPhone carriers, like Canada, France, Germany and the UK.