Sony’s new VAIO P Netbook comes with a long awaited feature – WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network), a feature that lets you obtain wireless internet from anywhere via a subscriber plan with a carrier such as AT&T. This allows people on the go to access the internet any and everywhere that their plan covers. This feature is excellent to work in conjunction with the VAIO P Netbook’s extensive feature set, to keep a businessman productive even when out and about or even to let a teenager stay online and talk to her friends during a long commute home.

As perfect as this may sound, there is a downside. Sony has locked this particular netbook down to Verizon’s WWAN plan exclusively, with unknown details behind it. Sony could potentially have made the same mistake Apple made in locking the iPhone down to AT&T. They cut their market by more than 50 % and Sony is setting up to repeat the mistake. Surely however, hackers will find a work-around soon enough to enable this netbook to appeal to a wider community of users of other networks. One can only hope that this happens soon, or Sony realizes their mistake and opens their netbook to everyone.