An ambitious generation of devices pushes telework forward

Previously, I posted on how the growth of wired and wireless broadband networks is facilitating telework and telecommuting. While the wireless and cellular is evolving everywhere, the action is especially hot in the highly competitive New York market.

Another vital element is the evolution of devices. Desktop machines – Macs and PCs – are evolving as they have for years: They grow more powerful and less expensive as time goes by.

The real change is on the mobile device front. Indeed, it is these changes, along with the growth of wireless networks, that is transforming home-bound telecommuting into telework, which is the ability to work from anywhere.

One overall trend is that the ability to squeeze more goodies into a smaller space is enabling a powerful generation of smart phones, laptops and other devices. A side effect of this is to make the line between business- and consumer-oriented machines increasingly porous. For instance, Research in Motion, which makes the traditionally business-oriented Blackberry, has in the last couple of years begun marketing versions of the phone to consumers. Likewise, consumer-oriented iPhones are used by many business people.

New categories are emerging as well. On the cell phone front, “feature phones” are a relatively new class of phones that are more powerful than traditional cells, but not quite smart phones.

The non cellphone portable device world is even more complex. The progenitor of this class of devices is the tablet, which is a small device that runs a version of a full desktop operating system. In other words, it’s a PC in your hand. Into this category come a number of newer entrants. The first on the scene was the ultra mobile personal computer, or UMPC. Even more recently, a more streamlined class of gadgets – mobile Internet devices, or MIDs – have hit the stores.

It is not worthwhile to spend too much time defining these devices, since vendors’ use of the various terms vary. Two things seem to be true, however. The first is that the newer type devices catch on in specific industries, such as health care and retail, before becoming more generically used. The other is that none of these are specifically aimed at teleworkers. Rather, they are emerging tools that, combined with every more powerful networks, provide folks working away from the office with powerful ways in which to get their work done.