I write about consumer electronics for a living, and I'm a woman.

Four years ago, I was the only person at my company who could say that. Today, that's changed, both at my job, and in the world in general. Women are taking a greater interest in, and have a more sophisticated understanding of, electronics than ever before. At least, that's what the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has found.


In conjunction with the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show and its "Technology is a Girl's Best Friend" sub-theme, CEA released their most recent findings on consumer demographics, and what they uncovered surprised many retailers. Along with many other, more specific discoveries (women are early adopters; a majority of women buy electronics for themselves, rather than as a gift for others), they determined that "women are involved in 89 percent of all consumer electronics purchase decisions" (statistic from a January 6 CEA press release).

This finding conflicts sharply with the male-centric approach most manufacturers and retailers use to market their gear. That approach was based on a fairly durable stereotype: that of the gear-happy guy, trying to upgrade his stereo — and often coming up against a wife who objected, "I don't want my nice living room full of those bulky speakers!" And, once, that stereotype wasn't necessarily an unfair one — in 1998, only 40% of consumer electronics purchases were initiated exclusively by women. Today, women are said to spend $55 billion yearly on electronics — that's over half of the $96 billion spent yearly on electronics. So what's changed?

Different gear, different mindsets
Well, here's one possibility: the electronics themselves have changed. Tower speakers are no longer considered de rigueur for good, engrossing sound. Instead, there are attractive bookshelf speakers, systems of tiny satellites paired with discreet subs — even in-wall and in-ceiling speakers that melt into the background.

Video gear is different too. To get a big-screen TV, you no longer have to buy a heavy projection CRT set that needs regular technician visits. Instead, there are slim on-wall sets, or DLP and LCD projection models that, while large, are actually pretty slender compared to primitive big-screen behemoths. It seems like an obvious conclusion, then, that form factor is making a difference, winning A/V gear a place in even the most décor-conscious living room.

Of course, other factors may be at work as well. Take, for example, the shift in how technology is perceived. Baby boomers who were born when computers took up whole buildings, or at least entire rooms, now use sleek personal PCs every day for business or fun. Those boomers' children grew up with personal computers, and pass around digital photos and digital music like they're swapping baseball cards. On the A/V front, you can now get an entire surround sound system — receiver, DVD player, five speakers, a subwoofer, even color-coded cables — in a single box.

Overall, technology has gotten less scary, less geeky, and more accessible, as people of both sexes realize, "I can do this." It doesn't seem like a huge leap to tie the increasing presence of women consumers to this shift.

But that's a pretty unscientific assessment; instead, let's turn again to more objective market data. The CEA survey, based on phone surveys of 1002 consumers, and conducted in partnership with Rockbridge Associates, noted that women have very positive reactions to specific technology areas, like HDTV, cell phones, and digital photography. For example, 48% of women own a digital camera! It also discovered that fully 84% of women believe that new technologies can help improve their lives.

Other, more specific studies identified changes in technology trends. The Pew Internet and American Life Project, for example, found that about as many college women as college men played video games, while slightly more college women played computer games than college men. And in August 2003, the Entertainment Software Association released results of a poll showing that while 38% of gamers are men 18 or older, 26% of gamers are women, and only 21% are boys between 6 and 17.

This kind of information, combined with CEA's recent survey, seems to show that women are becoming informed and involved in technology areas where they once had little or no presence. It's an exciting trend.

Scratching their heads
However, manufacturers and retailers, rather than jumping for joy, seem puzzled, even concerned. When CEA released the new demographic information, a host of AP-based articles appeared in newspapers all over the country. Despite references to a few manufacturers and retailers who'd changed their focus, the message in most articles was that the industry needed to change its approach.

And I have to admit, I have some doubts about this.

If it ain't broke…
I am not a marketing specialist, but it seems to me that manufacturers and retailers who have accessed a huge consumer group without even expecting to should be ecstatic. The last thing they should do is start changing everything — obviously, something about their former approach was working better than they could have predicted. And some of the plans for creating more "women-friendly" products, especially on the part of manufacturers, make me wonder if the old "this-is-what-men-like, this-is-what-women-like" stereotypes are lifting their tired heads once more.

For example, a January 16, 2004, Associated Press piece published on CNN notes that "a growing number of companies are starting to target their wares toward female buyers" and goes on to use Sony's LIV line as an example: "sold exclusively at Target stores" and including "CD players for the kitchen and shower radios in colors from stainless steel to lime." Now, I'm not saying that those products won't find success with women consumers — I'm sure they will. I just doubt that a significant portion of the $55 billion women spent on electronics in 2003 went toward candy-colored products designed to make cooking more fun or showers more entertaining.

Sony's super-slim DSC-T1 digital camera and Panasonic's tiny SV-AV100 D-snap camcorder were both on display in the TechGirl Product Showcase.

Even at CES 2004, where CEA made a solid effort to identify and encourage the trend toward women consumers of A/V gear, I thought I saw new signs of these rather old-fashioned assumptions. I fought my way through the Las Vegas Convention Center Grand Lobby to the TechGirl product showcase. Inside were the components, gadgets and gizmos selected by 3 female technology journalists and 4 women's media journalists as most likely to appeal to women "based on form, function, overall ease of use and how these products enhance the daily lives of female consumers." Out of the sixteen products shown, though several were apparently chosen for their powerful functionality (Pioneer's DVR-810H DVD recorder with TiVo™ comes to mind), at least half seemed to be exceptional chiefly for their slim design or small size. I'm pretty tech-geeky, so I still enjoyed looking at and reading about the items displayed, but I admit, I couldn't figure out exactly what made these so perfect for women. Did most women really put a premium on fun colors and tiny products?

A closer look
I was actually puzzled enough by this to do a little market research of my own. I created a survey on using and understanding technology, and dropped it off at a local school (where 95% of the teachers and staff are women); I know several staff members, and they kindly agreed to pass the survey around. Some of my questions were intentionally similar to the questions answered in the CEA survey — I wanted to see how much the answers matched up. Some of them were a little different; for example, I asked my respondents to describe some ideal technology products. And the survey didn't specify any interest in how women used technology as opposed to how men used it — I didn't want the respondents trying to view things in that light.

Overall, I got an interesting range of answers, all fairly consistent with each other, from 19 college-educated women between 22 and 50. (I only got one survey back from a man, and am not including its answers in these findings — although they were pretty similar.) My results were not all that different from the CEA survey's results, either, although a few things stood out pretty clearly.

Women and electronics
I asked, "After price, what are your top three priorities in choosing electronics?" The possible answers included 1) Good looks; 2) Reliability; 3) Trustworthy brand; 4) Easy to connect and use; 5) Small size or slim design; 6) Won't become obsolete; and 7) Portability. The answers I got surprised me.

16 out of 19 respondents chose "Trustworthy brand." A thematically related answer, "Reliability," was chosen by 12 out of 19 respondents. And a close third, "Easy to connect and use," was a top priority for 10 out of 19 of the respondents. Even more interesting to me was the fact that "Small size or slim design" was only important to 5 people, and "Portability" was only important to 2.


These answers are in conflict with industry assumptions about what women want in A/V gear, although not necessarily in conflict with what the CEA survey found. The CEA survey asked 1000 people (500 men, 500 women) to identify every factor which was of "high importance" to them when selecting electronics. Even though women rated "Being as portable as possible" and "Attractive styling and appearance" as important more often than men did (respectively, 55% and 48% to men's 43% and 39%), these two priorities were still at the bottom of the CEA's list for both women and men. Top of the CEA's list of findings, for both men and women, was "Reliability and durability." (An intriguing side note: women appeared to place more emphasis than men did on all factors; there was no factor that women rated less important than men did.)




My survey also asked respondents to rate how likely they were to get help from a friend or family member when buying a computer, an A/V component, and a TV. 9 respondents were "very likely" to get help when buying all three. But the remaining ten were less likely to seek help when buying an A/V component, or, especially, a TV, compared to buying a PC. The disparity indicates greater comfort with more entertainment-focused electronics than with computers — even though all of the respondents work with computers every day.

I also asked respondents to choose the statement that best described them. Not a single respondent chose the first option, which read "A) I am extremely comfortable with consumer electronics and computers." 12 women chose "B) Technology isn't my hobby, but I can figure out how to operate most electronics." And 7 women chose "C) I am not very comfortable with electronics; I always have someone else do setup and connection for me." (As with the CEA survey, that lack of confidence was more common in older women; my only three respondents over 45 all chose C.)

Finally — though this information is even less scientific than my survey — the open answers to some of the questions were fairly illuminating. For example, when I asked respondents to envision an ideal A/V product, a majority of them described voice-controlled car CD players and cell phones, laptops that offered wireless connections and were easy to transport around the home while maintaining a fast Internet connection, and affordable flat-panel TVs. When asked what their next technology purchase would be if price were no object, common answers included digital cameras, flat-panel TVs or "better" TVs, and faster laptops (several specified Macs, perhaps because the school in question uses mainly Macintosh computers).

So — sleek, stylish, and simple?
It's tough for me to assess this clearly, because I'm something of an anomaly among my female friends; I really do like to see A/V gear and learn about new technologies. But even when I allow for my bias, I still find that the "Keep it sleek, stylish and simple" exhortations found in the CEA's "5 Consumers to Watch" release reflect a flawed assessment of the available data.

Yes, certainly — keep it sleek. Everything is sleek right now. Skinny flat-panel TVs, the slender and oh-so-popular iPod, the hot Sony DSC-T1 (part of the TechGirl showcase, by the way) are all slim, well-designed products that are hard to beat.

But an important factor is the technology packed inside. Flat-panel TVs tend to look pretty darn good — better than a lot of the old NTSC-only TVs that people have been watching for the last ten years. Apple's iPod is a design masterpiece, and wonderfully easy to use. The DSC-T1 is slender, to be sure, but it's also packing a 5-megapixel CCD.

Pioneer's DVR-810H, above, was a great choice in the TechGirl product Showcase, as it offers powerful capabilities and is easy to use.

My point is, both men and women are showing interest in products that offer serious functionality and performance, hidden inside a sleek design. Don't disappoint 'em.

Keep it simple? Heck yeah. The emphasis on limited wiring or no wires at all (shown in both CEA's survey and my mini-survey), as well as the emphasis on ease of use (also duplicated in CEA's study and my findings) indicates a real desire for products that are low on setup and high on usability. Make it easy to connect and make it easy to operate — that's something both men and women are clamoring for. And recent retailer plans to offer lots of info, straightforward product demos, and friendly customer service are good thinking, especially for retailers who want to hang on to women customers — the more confident people feel when faced with new technology, the better they'll feel about owning it.

But stylish? That one's a bit trickier, and it may be where I'm running into the biggest problem. As I've discussed above, portability and attractive styling are lowest on the list of priorities for women consumers — yet many of the TechGirl Showcase products, along with the gear created for the female market by manufacturers, put a premium on portable designs and chic, eye-catching styles. I have to wonder if journalists and manufacturers are letting those old assumptions about women and electronics — the ones that made women's role in electronics such a surprise — influence their decision-making.

So, who's defining "stylish"? It looks like women have been deciding that for themselves over the last few years, with their purchases. If they're not already doing it, I would urge manufacturers and retailers to take a look at exactly what women are buying today, before glutting the market with "cute" products that fit in a purse but don't actually do much. Because what a woman consumer stops in front of and exclaims over, and what a woman consumer researches and takes home to her living room, may be totally different things.

After all, I really liked the petite pink-and-white CEA tote bags available at CES — but I've gotten far more use out of the sturdy, swamp-green, rolling backpack available to CES 2004 press attendees.