I finally got one this year (I'm 36, but realized this stuff was nonsense on an iPaq) just to do away with potatophone service and a landline that only worked s

I finally got one this year (I'm 36, but realized this stuff was nonsense on an iPaq) just to do away with potatophone service and a landline that only worked some of the time. I still mostly use it as a phone. Maybe the pervasive need for vendor smartphone applications just hasn't reached anywhere I go, but I do travel for work a fair bit. Is this just, again, something that's prevalent outside the USA? EDIT: comment further down did remind me that I think someone in our group had to use some parking app last time we were in Cambridge, MA.