One word can describe the single greatest change within the power tool industry this past decade: DeWalt.

By resurrecting the old radial arm saw brand name that had been almost dormant through the 1980s, Black & Decker sent shockwaves across the industry with its re-launch of the DeWalt brand name and its full-on rollout of 30 new cordless tools in 1994. Up until then, Makita had pretty much been the king of cordless.

“DeWalt set the tone for the 1990s,” says Jeff Street, vice president of product development at Makita. “Their tools were well-designed with clever features that marketed themselves from the shelves, just in time for The Home Depot and Lowe's. They caused all of us to change our designs.”

Nowhere has the effect of DeWalt's rollout been felt more strongly than in the cordless tool categories. And while everyone points to cordless as having revolutionized power tools forever, there is some disagreement as to whether the changes we've seen in the past 15 years will even come close to what we'll see in the next 15.

“We broke the dam with our cordless tools,” says Skip Nichels, technical manager for DeWalt. “Our incremental improvements kept leap-frogging each other, and when we hit 18 volts we could finally say, ‘You can do the same job as with corded tools,' especially in residential work.”

You could almost feel the heat during the race that ensued, and as voltage and amp-hours increased, companies extended their lines into tougher applications, including circular, reciprocating, and miter saws, and even heavy-duty rotary hammers. They raced until the market finally showed them the sweet-spot balance-point between power and weight, and settled down to 14.4 and 18 volts for most one-handed tools, 24 volts for two-handed operations, and a retro-fondness for 9.6- and 12-volt models that make perfect sense for many uses.

Jim Neidner of Neidner Construction and Remodeling in Houston says during the past 15 years, cordless tools have “dramatically improved” the way he builds. “They give you speed and convenience,” says Neidner.

But a number of pros contend improvements still are needed. “Some of our guys say the 18-volts are too heavy and bulky,” says Arthur Kreins, president of Kreins Construction in Sioux Falls, S.D. “The 24-volt—it's a huge tool.” But he admits there's a tradeoff. “The smaller-volt [tools] don't have the same power.”

Kreins also is concerned about durability. He points out that if you drop a cordless tool off a roof, it might not survive the fall.

In terms of battery technology, nicad still is the most common type, but some companies have switched to NiMH. And everybody is looking for the next breakthrough in power (volts), runtime (amp-hours), and size and weight (cell size). That means new battery technology and smaller, more efficient motors.