There was a time when the marketers of electronic gear might have just chalked that up as a woman thing and ignored her. But times are changing.
Eight months ago, Ms. Duarte, the 44-year-old chief executive of Duarte Design, bought an Apple MacBook. Soon she discovered just how useful her digital camera became when it conversed with her Mac’s iPhoto software, spilling her pictures on to the laptop’s screen with a single touch. A short time later, she said, she was making homemade DVDs with slideshows and videos, and beginning to notice that various manufacturers “make really cute bags now to carry around your laptop.”
In short, Ms. Duarte fell for high-tech gadgets. Her basic feelings about consumer technology did not change. What changed was the design of the products. They were easy to use and that appealed to her.
“Women are busier than men,” she said. “I don’t love technology enough to sit down and spend two hours with a manual like it’s some great puzzle. Men get great gratification out of that. I’d rather read a book.”
Ms. Duarte represents a growing number of women who 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. Shoppers see it throughout electronics store from the rising popularity of digital picture frames to flat-panel televisions that are designed to fit into the cabinets and armoires that once housed smaller-screened traditional televisions by moving the TV speakers from the sides to the top or bottom of the TV.
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, like 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 cellphones made by LG Electronics have the cameras’ automatic focus calibrated to arms’ 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 S.L.R. 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 like preset shooting modes. Camera makers wanted to reach the female market with digital S.L.R. cameras because they carry a higher profit margin than the point-and-shoot models.
The consumer electronics industry has generally come to accept the fairly obvious: many, perhaps most, electronic products are meant for the home and the home is largely controlled by women, whether or not men and children live there, said Robert F. Gee, vice president for marketing at Coby Electronics, based in Queens.
“Women are becoming more of the decision makers,” Mr. Gee said. “When large-screen TVs first came out it was all about sports. Now it’s much more about features used in seeing movies. Women are a big part of that audience and the designs are reflecting that.”
Coby has begun to speak more directly to women by advertising some of its products, like a portable dual-screen DVD player for the car, in Cosmopolitan magazine.
“Spouse acceptance factor” is a phrase often tossed about at DigitalAdvisor (www.digitaladvisor.com), an online information and shopping site for consumer electronics based in Cambridge, Mass. And that spouse, explained 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.
Mr. Brady said that men and women tended to have radically different approaches to televisions in the home. “Men want the TV to dominate the room,” he 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.
The combo TV-DVD players, which usually cost $800 to $1,000, are equipped with auto wake, permitting users to turn the television on by simply slipping a DVD into it. Knowing that one does not have to fumble with a multi-button remote control becomes a subtle signal to buy. Technologies designed to camouflage electronics like 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 Décor, 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,” Mr. Malone said. The speakers cost $800 and the covers range from $40 to $120 each.
Energizer, the battery maker, went so far as to create a 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 it is 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 that help it blend in with kitchen appliances. Large light-emitting-diode 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.”