Since the pandemic, working from home or hybrid working quickly became the norm, but as we head into 2024, the new trend to look out for is WFP, work from phone.
Gone are the days of having an office setup at home and having to move the junk to a new section in the house.
Heading into 2024, many are trading the double monitor desk setup in the spare bedroom for working at the touch of your fingers, working from your phone.
For years, working from phone didn’t seem right. The screen is too small, apps are truly only limited to email, texting and calling and sometimes the “Sent from iPhone” signature is just not a good look.
But, with more and more people on the move, the idea of hybrid working is here to stay and working from your phone is one option.
“It’s definitely has definitely undergone significant changes from the first time it actually introduced in the last four or five years and it continues to evolve,” says Morgan Halim, Managing Director of mobile company OPPO New Zealand.
Over the years OPPO has witnessed first-hand how hybrid working has changed the working landscape, by creating technology to fit the changing habits for those working on the move.
“Technology definitely played a massive role in helping people to adapt to hybrid working. We definitely recognise the significance of making sure our product and our solution and our offering is aligned with the evolving needs,” he adds.
“This is still evolving, it’s still changing.”
Read more: Work trends to look out for in 2023
Since the wide adoption of hybrid working, many employees and employers alike have realised the affect it has created in putting personal life needs first amidst a nine-to-five schedule.
Now in the mainstream, hybrid working is the norm, allowing employees to work from home, trading aspects such as commuting to picking up the children.
People are now looking to their phones to do most of their job so they can move around, pick up children, go out on site, meet with others outside the office and more.
And it’s not just the people who are recognising this, it is also the tech companies.
Halim says if we were to look at the mobile phone space right now, we’re already seeing phone screens getting bigger and bigger, more microphones from the usual one and bigger and faster charged batteries.
There is a growing focus on making them productive, to allow for that flexibility for the growing number of those working from their mobile phones t
“We want to make sure the product is future proof and make sure they help us whether they want to work from home or they want to work on the go or they want to work in the office,” he adds.
“[We want to] give that customer more versatility on what they want to use the device for and having the best of everything.”
He adds that at OPPO, they are looking at what people want before creating product.
In a recent OPPO survey, Hamlin says customers have stated they want a device that improves their productivity on the move, meaning they want access to their emails, ability to multitask, portability and more.
Heading into 2024, it is safe to say that mobile phones will definitely be evolving even more to fit the everchanging work landscape.