Ben Brooks, on carrying a Verizon MiFi with an iPad:
The MiFi is super easy to use, but it is not as easy as just using your iPad. By that I mean that if you have a 3G iPad and you want to look up something on the net you flip it on, wait a second and surf the web – it connects to 3G for you if you don’t have WiFi available. With the MiFi you would have to pull out the iPad, check to see if you can get WiFi (because you are too lazy to pull out the MiFi first, trust me I am speaking from experience). Then when you see you have no WiFi pull out the MiFi, turn it on, wait, wait, then connect the iPad to the MiFi (it will do this automatically if you have used the two together before).
I agree with Ben — the MiFi + iPad combination is awkward at best.
While this MiFi thing may end up a fumble, Apple usually follows fumbles with great passes.
Honestly, the MiFi + iPad things feels a little bit like the Motorola ROKR E1 — an awkward product that in retrospect was simply terrible. However, the ROKR led to something great — the iPhone. Hopefully the MiFi’s great pass will end up being Verizon-backed iOS devices.
Chairmen Gurber is right — the symbolism is what’s most important about this week’s announcement.