Mobile Task Characteristics and the Needs for Mobile Work Support: A Comparison between Mobile Knowledge Workers and Field Workers

The rapid growth of wireless communication and portable devices in recent years has created a great potential of providing mobile work support for mobile workers. However not all mobile tasks require or can benefit from the use of mobile work support. In order to identify appropriate mobile technologies for various kinds of mobile work supports, we need to fully understand the nature of mobile work and the needs for mobile work support. In this paper we develop a theoretical framework and conduct an empirical study to compare the two types of mobile workers: mobile knowledge workers and field workers. This study will help us to assess the needs of mobile work support for different types of mobile workers.