They could be, or just brand name specific. But maybe most everyone in this area uses this kind and people in that area use another kind.
The City Police might use a different one than the Robovac apartment cleaner or the Tastee Ghoul drive-through could have another. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_(role-playing_game)
It sounds like anything with a Language Processor is a device you can talk to. It can infer your meaning from conversation, tone, inflection, what you type, what you don't type, what you typed last week..
"They are ostensibly aware of linguistic patterns.. possess subconscious levels of activity where hardwired rules of communication interact.."
It does say that LP's aren't as fast as Numeric Processors (pg127)
In my humble opinion, LP's are easier for most people to deal with; easier to use. Lower Empathy Stat individuals are less likely to blow them away.
How this applies to the game is up to you. Every where people interact with machines, there is likely a LP handling the interface.
A Numeric Processor could do the job, but the answers might be repetitive after a while.
"To check your account balance, press one, or say one, now." This program can perform many tasks but it's only so skilled at inferring meaning. "I'm sorry. I didn't get that."
If you say anything that the computer doesn't understand, it might ask for the info again, or transfer you to a real body who can understand you. People are expensive to staff and can do less specialized tasks.
In Cyberspace, that real body might just be a Lang Processor who's only job is to infer your meaning.
Maybe it can have a real Turing Test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test) conversation with you. Maybe it can't. But it will be able to use your input data (voice) and not only infer your meaning, but give you a result that leaves you satisfied. But it might not be able to do many other tasks..
I have a pretty darn smart phone. It does a few of the things I tell it to do. It doesn't congratulate me on the idea or pleasantly respond that it will remind me of something if asked. It is not an Iphone. That's ok with me. It does remind me though!
Looking at those commercials, my phone isn't less advanced, it's just less pat on the back supportive. I don't have an emotional phone. I don't have a Language Processor Phone.
Further Reading:
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/computer-speech-and-language/
I use to think that all processor cores would be numeric, but these people might disagree.
Here's a small list of modern Languages.
http://www.webhostingschool.com/best-computer-language-guide