Word of Tech

Tech Toys Move from Mars to Venus

The CBC Technology section has an article about Women and Gadgets. A recent American survey suggests that women are more into techno gadgetry than jewelry or clothes (or even shoes). High tech bling, you might say.

However, women buy tech toys for function while men buy them for form. A woman will buy a VCR/DVR because she’s always out on Tuesdays and doesn’t want to miss House. A man will buy a plasma big screen TV because…well, it’s cool.

I tried to equate this to my own tech experiences.

I have a friend who has a cell phone solely for “emergencies” - it is almost never on so I don’t bother calling her on it. Definitely a functional purchase.

Another friend bought a scanner to digitize her old photograph collection. Functional, even if some of those high school shots of me should be irretrievably lost. 

I gave my husband a 400-disc jukebox-like CD player primarily because I wanted to get the discs off the floor. Functional for me.

This is also the man who was keen as peaches to get a DVR with a hard drive, but has yet to learn how to program it. It’s a good thing I like Frontline as much as he does.

Maybe it comes down to need versus want. (One could argue that no one needs tech toys, but let’s run with the making life easier and more enjoyable kind of need.) Women buy tech to suit their needs, men to satisfy wants.

Women will recommend tech toys to friends based on how well it works. “Without my Blackberry Pearl I’d forget about appointments.” “Have you tried this website for photos? I can order prints and send them to my mother-in-law in one step.”

Men seem to be more competitive with their recommendations. “My MP3 player has 2 GB of memory.” “Cool, mine has 4 and a full colour screen.”

Of course, mea culpa, I’m over generalizing a stereotype.

But if the market is opening up to women, and women seek functional tech, this can only be a good thing for quality technology. Hell hath no fury like a dissatisfied woman consumer.

Will this make tech even easier to use? Ever more practical? Increasingly useful? I’m confident of one thing, it will continue to be fun.

October 11th, 2006 Posted by Kath | Tech Toys | one comment