Kamera Digital News

Gadgets for women have to go beyond cute and pink

June 18th, 2007

Gadgets for women have to go beyond cute and pink
By MICHEL MARRIOTT
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Product Reviews, UK

A growing number of women are embracing consumer electronics just as the technologies are reaching out to embrace them. Behind this quiet revolution are engineers and designers who are bringing a more feminine sensibility to products historically shaped by masculine tastes, habits and requirements.

Only a few years ago, feminizing a consumer electronic product meant little more than creating a pink or pastel version of the same black or silvery item coveted by men. And, some retailers note, that kind of marketing still goes on. But feminizing technology is more about a product’s fundamentals, often expressed in its ease of use. It is not always aimed exclusively at women, but it is female friendly.

The impact is being noticed. Women bought slightly more than half the digital cameras in the first four months of this year, compared with 48 percent a year ago, according to the NPD Group, a market analysis firm.

There are more subtle touches, too, such as the wider spacing of the keys on a new Sony ultraportable computer notebook that goes on sale next week. It accommodates the longer fingernails that women tend to have. Some of the latest cell phones made by LG Electronics have the camera’s automatic focus calibrated to arm’s length. The company observed that young women are fond of taking pictures of themselves with a friend. Men, not so much.

Nikon and Olympus recently introduced lines of lighter, more compact and easy-to-use digital single-lens-reflex cameras that were designed with women in mind because they tend to be a family’s primary keeper of memories.

The Nikon D40X is 20 percent smaller than a standard Nikon digital SLR camera and can be easily carried around the neck or slipped into a handbag. It has many of the automated features normally found on a point-and-shoot camera, such as preset shooting modes. Camera makers wanted to reach the female market with digital SLR cameras because they carry a higher profit margin than point-and-shoot models.

“Spouse acceptance factor” is a phrase often tossed about at DigitalAdvisor (digitaladvisor.com), an online information and shopping site for consumer electronics based in Cambridge, Mass. That spouse, said Mike Brady, the Web site’s editor, is usually a woman. “If a man brings home a big whooper of a television, the woman is going to say, ‘That’s stupid; it’s too big for the wall,’ ” he said.

Brady said that men and women tend to have radically different approaches to televisions in the home.

“Men want the TV to dominate the room,” Brady said. “Women look more at the TV to not be the centerpiece of the room, but more of an accent piece.”

Television makers have responded to more feminine considerations in several ways. Westinghouse Digital Electronics has recently released flat-panel liquid-crystal-display televisions — at the modest screen sizes of 32 and 40 inches that are more appealing to women — with built-in front-loading DVD players.

Those are even more appealing to women, said Rey Roque, the company’s vice president for marketing, because the room will not be cluttered with a black box to view DVDs, or another set of unsightly wires.

Technologies designed to camouflage electronics such as televisions and home theater speaker systems are rapidly becoming a whole category unto themselves.

Acoustic Research sells a compact speaker system concealed in what the company calls “acoustically transparent” covers.

The system, called Home Decor, disguises speakers as vases, books, planters, mantel clocks or candleholders, said Tom Malone, president of Audiovox, the parent company in Hauppauge, N.Y.

“The concept was to make a good audio system and then literally make it disappear,” Malone said. The speakers cost $800 and the covers range from $40 to $120 each.

Energizer, went so far as to create a battery charger for each sex. The Dock & Go, at $33, is aimed at men. Black and gray with shiny trim, the two pods hold up to four batteries each (AA or AAA). A light glows red when it is charging, yellow when the batteries are charged.

The second device, the $20 Easy Charger, is aimed at women, who usually end up managing the household’s batteries. This charger is flat, round and sold with interchangeable faceplates in silver, black and eggshell to help it blend in with kitchen appliances. Large LED readouts spell out what the countertop charger is doing at every phase of the charging cycle.

Focus-group testing indicated that men were turned off by the Easy Charger, especially in how its readouts appeared to tell them what they thought they already knew, said Mandy Iswarienko, the brand manger for rechargeable products.

“We found that how people use chargers is very different,” she said. “For her, she wants it to be instantly understandable.”

Entry Filed under: World Digital Camera