I suppose if I had unlimited data and I was always to be within cellular coverage areas, perhaps I wouldn't mind.

I would much rather have outdated data to get me from point A to point B on a long trip than have recent data that costs me a fortune or worse yet, have no coverage and therefore no maps at all.

I have a stand alone gps unit, with 'built-in' maps. Probably the maps are a few years old. No monthly subscription charges.

I had a Symbian OS smartphone with a $99 GPS application (Route 66), it came with a CD with all maps and you copied the regions you needed onto an SD card. No data charges, no monthly subscription charges.

And now I have a Blackberry 8800 with onboard GPS (a big plus, certainly). But I have to use data and be in a cell coverage area, and subscribe to a monthly plan such as Telenav or use a less powerful free solution. I ended up going with Wayfinder Navigator 7 ($99 for North American version) but it's still uses data but at least no monthly subscription fees. My SD card now has 8x the capacity that I used for two regions worth of maps on my Nokia E62.

I feel like I have taken a step or two backwards.