There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month discussing the rise of mobile workers and the use of mobile technology. The article references a recent Forrester survey that shows that nearly half of respondents use a smartphone at least once a week for work, and 21 percent said they use a tablet for work at least weekly. With attention typically focused on how consumers are using their smartphones and tablets and the blending of personal device and work tool as “bring your own device” becomes a growing trend in the workplace, it’s important to consider mobile’s positive impact on the workforce as well.
For starters, it has been shown that the use of mobile technology can boost employee productivity. For people in jobs that require a significant amount of travel, such as pharmaceutical sales reps or corporate executives, this is obvious. However, mobile brings flexibility to the traditional work schedule as well, enabling employees to get work done from any location at any time.
The benefit of mobile technology also extends far beyond the enterprise and traditional corporate environment. The Wall Street Journal article describes how a construction company utilizes a digital-blueprint software on their tablets to increase efficiency and save time and resources. Educators are also utilizing mobile – a recent study from Pew Research shows that 73 percent of teachers use cellphones for classroom activity, which provides them with easy access to content, resources and materials for teaching. In the healthcare industry, doctors use mobile devices to easily access medical records, drug interaction data and share other important information with patients.
As many of these examples point out, mobile devices alone aren’t enough to empower the workforce. Other technologies, such as customized software and applications, are needed to ensure workers can reap the full benefits of mobile technology either by providing access to information or enabling productivity.
Pico projection is a great example of a feature that can help users fully benefit from mobile. With embedded pico projection in a mobile device, doctors can share information with patients without huddling around the small screen, contractors can display full sized construction blueprints to workers at a project site, and teachers can show presentations and video from their smartphone to their entire classroom.
For more information on how MicroVision’s PicoP technology can benefit a variety of mobile users, check out our latest video.