Is the MiFi Model the Future of Mobile Broadband?

[Commentary] Some laptop customers want 3G or 4G radios in their notebooks for connectivity nearly everywhere, but nearly two years after the birth of the mobile hotspot, is it time for the embedded model to die off?

From a hardware-maker's standpoint, adding internal mobile broadband radios can be a product differentiator. If Dell opts not to include such connectivity, and Toshiba does, the latter has a value-add feature to advertise. Based on that, I don't expect notebook or netbook makers, for example, to simply stop adding 3G or 4G radios to their devices. But from a consumer's standpoint, such options are likely to find less favor over time because people simply don't want to pay for multiple connections.