More Computing Power on Your Belt Than at Your Desk?

During his speech yesterday at the Center for American Progress on cutting spending and increasing productivity in government, OMB Director Peter Orszag drove home a point he's fond of making: that the information technology gap between the public and private sectors is large and growing.

Orszag put it this way:

At one time, a federal worker went to the office and had access to cutting-edge

computer power and programs. Now, he often has more of both clipped to a device on his belt.

That's a clever bit of rhetoric. But is it close to being true? I accept the notion that much of government isn't on the cutting edge when it comes to computers any more. But more computing power on your iPhone or BlackBerry? That seems like a stretch.

I have what I'd like to think is a state of the art Android-based smartphone (in my pocket, not clipped to my belt, thank you very much) but it doesn't have anywhere near the computing power of the PC I had on my desk eight or 10 years ago. Is government really this far behind?