Well if the US had reliable GPRS-based broadband that was cheap and common in hardware for mobile platforms, and if the US wasnt so damn huge, maybe the need for wifi wouldnt have been so gigantic. In the future when 3G eventually proliferates and gets really cheap we'll be writing drivers for our CF GPRS radios instead.
Japan has had their fun little packet radio services for a while now. It helps that 90% of the population lives in less than ten cities, and the island itself is tiny compared to the continent.
Of course an integrated GPRS/GSM/3g radio in a PDA is a loooong way away, and probably will never happen due to the 15000 RF cellular standards in the USA. Oh well!
Patience ;3