The Type-A Bathroom
For workaholics, it's the new home office. Jon Weinbach and Peggy Edersheim Kalb on showerproof computers, mirrors with stock quotes and the latest water hazard: 'BlackBerry dunk.' — With a BlackBerry, two mobile phones, three office computers and wireless Internet for his car …
Context & Ripple Effects
By early 2006 the BlackBerry has become the emblem of round-the-clock professional availability, and Wall Street Journal reporters Jon Weinbach and Peggy Edersheim Kalb document its logical endpoint: high-earning professionals outfitting the last unplugged room in the house. Confirmed details include mirrors that display stock quotes during morning routines, [[/entity/blackberry|BlackBerry]]-equipped users who bring the device everywhere, and purpose-built showerproof computers marketed at this audience.
First-order effects
- Device owners face a new and literal failure mode — the 'BlackBerry dunk' into toilets and tubs — turning an everyday room into a leading cause of destroyed hardware.
- Vendors of showerproof computers and quote-displaying mirrors gain a defined niche customer: the executive who treats the bathroom as a satellite office.
Second-order effects
- Handset makers such as BlackBerry's manufacturer face pressure to treat liquid exposure as a design requirement rather than user error, since their most intensive users carry the device into the tub.
- Home renovation and fixture suppliers gain an upsell path, marketing 'wired' bathrooms with integrated displays and connectivity to the same Type-A buyers.
Third-order effects
- If every room becomes a workplace, the distinction between office hardware and household hardware erodes, pushing electronics design toward durability and glanceability rather than desk-bound ergonomics.
- The pattern feeds an emerging critique of always-on work culture, where constant connectivity is treated less like a productivity tool and more like a dependency — an analogy some commentators already draw to smoking.
The trend: As mobile email devices saturate professional life, work is colonizing the final offline spaces of the home, forcing hardware design and home building to absorb the office.