WTVM.com and WTVM News Leader 9, Columbus, GA | Ladies... Looking for some cool gadgets?

Ladies... Looking for some cool gadgets?

May 21, 2008

Columbus, GA (WTVM)--And you thought electronics was a man's world...well, think again.

Women of all ages shop for and buy all sorts of electronic gadgets.

Research from the Consumer Electronics Association shows the gender gap isn't very wide when it comes to gadgets.

Eighty-eight percent of men and 82% of women say they're interested in consumer electronics.

The same survey reveals women are more likely to have certain items in the house including:

Cell phones; televisions; digital video recordersl , MP3 players as well as car video entertainment systems.

Experts say manufacturers know this, and are taking heed.

"Well, the whole idea is, kind of goes to the blue ocean strategy, you fish where the fish are," says Auburn University Thomas Walter Professor of Marketing Danny Butler, Ph.D.

And the strategy reveals there are plenty more in the sea.

"The bottom line is, there's a whole lot of ladies out there and there's a whole lot of market and demographics that show that a lot of people have a lot of money and so what you do is, you turn around and you say how many people have the money and you design the products for their needs," Butler says.

From slim and sleek cameras small enough to fit in a pocket or purse, to bluetooth technology that meets the needs of a women on the go.

Retailers say they're seeing more of these products in the store and selling more of them.

"I think it's all about simplifying your life and making your life easier," says Best Buy Store Services Manager Amber Morrison.

Morrison says convenience is just one of the reason some of the latest gadgets work well for women.

She walks us through a few of them.  Digital picture frames were a must have for this year---the one Morrison shows us is wireless.

Garmin has come out with it's first ever product in pink.

"It's small enough, it's got a 3.5" inch screen, small enough to put in a case, stick in your purse, whenever you're out of town and on the go," says Morrison.

Then she shows us another one.  It's sort of an "all in one" message center.

"It's for fun, you know, they can put pictures and fun notes and this one, you can put those voice notes on it and it just makes it fun for the whole family," Morrison says.

We take the AudioVox Home Base and an Olympus FE-340 digital camera out for women to try.

The Home Base gets a lukewarm response from one wife and mother of three.

"I could see it has potential," she says after using it.

The camera has 8.0 megapixels and a feature that's supposed to allow users to take a good, self-portrait.  Just imagine the ones you see on all those social networking sites!

Plus, it will automatically take a picture when the subject smiles.

I ask a few women what they think after using it and playing with the features.

 "I liked it, I liked it yeah," two Auburn University students tell me.

"It saves time too, because you see people all the time...and it's like cutting your face off and you have to re-take it and delete it," one young lady adds.

We test it out with two other women with their young children.

 "I think that's pretty cool, I like the smile feature," one of them says.

"It's small, it's easy, not a lot of weight to it," her friend adds.

After all, like most women, she's got enough to carry!

Besides an increase and advancement of technology overall, Butler says part of reason behind this trend is possibly an increase in women's purchasing power.

"Let's just say a segment of the market that stayed at home or not worked as much, didn't have as much of their disposable income to buy some of these products, well, now as they mature through the family life cycle and have more disposable income, what happens is, they may become the influencer and say, I really want this product.  Matter of fact as I'm also the decision maker, I'm going buy the product and I'm the user," says Butler.

No matter rationale behind it, Butler says manufacturers and retailers want to be in front of it.

"If I'm a marketer, I really don't care that my business model is set up such that I say women 17 to 35.  If that brings my margin in, then that's where I'm gonna go!"

Experts at CNET gave us a list of other hot items geared toward females:

Canon Powershot A470

iPod Touch

Nintendo DS Lite

LG Venus phone

Flip Video Ultra

Plus, click here for more girl gadgets!