[srmarm]

America was way behind at that point.

IIRC a combination of weird regional roaming agreements, odd incompatible networks and the sheer size of the country leading to lots of coverages blackspots meant that the US just didn't get widespread adoption of decent mobile tech.

[emteycz]

Yeah, that makes the iPhone hype much more sensible. I remember it as very much underwhelming, I had a phone like that 2 years before it came out, and it had apps.