More Products Aim at Female Audience

Oooooh two new products targeted at women, how do you like them?

First is a wrist watch from Sony Ericsson that has built-in blue tooth. As someone who still doesn't really use a cell phone (long story, but so far has worked to my advantage) I'm not sure how to rate it, however the features are cool in the way that I use to think being a spy could be a glamorous adventurous job - I'd glance at my watch to see who is calling on the phone. It will also vibrate when a text is sent, and can hook up to a blue-tooth ear piece to accept a call. However I'm not entirely sure on the watch design - I may lack cell phone cool, but I happen to be a watch wearer and these don't really hit my bar for trendy watches. HOWEVER - I credit companies for trying to address the female audience, we're a tough crowd but when they get fashion and technology in sync someone is going to have a huge success.
Next up is Audio Technica headphones, they claim designed for women. They come in an array of different colors, and colorful tins to keep the earbuds in. They claim to be with 'superior comfort designed for women' but the proof is in women finding them comfortable - I would hate to think someone launched into a new range of hardware without considering the anthropomorphic differences of the audience they're targeting.

So two product areas where companies are trying to blend technology and fashion to address women. I'd like to meet their engineering/design teams to understand the gender mix of the groups - are these products designed by men for women, or mix gender teams?
Bottom-line -- keep trying the innovations aimed at women, I really appreciate it.

Lighting Up Fashion With Technology

I discovered some inspiring work today, or rather a creative friend pointed me to the work of Leah Buechley. She's currently a PhD student at the University of Boulder. Her area of focus is to combine technology and textiles and what super creations she's coming up with, and she's also making it approachable for others.

Some of her projects use fabric-based iron-on circuits also known as 'fabric PCBs' (Printed circuit boards), some small electronic sequins. Its a wonderful creative combination of sewing craft and technology.

I love her efforts to make accessible science with textile with such projects as math handbags, where she offered a Science Discover workshop for 11-14 year old students could use her graphing program to create their own math graph bags and other items.

Leah's philosophy of wanting to combine science and technology with more 'feminine' activities (as she puts it) is close to my own intentions. In the summer I blogged about the concern I had when my kids at science camp were becoming bored of boats, boats, boats, or planes, planes, planes, they needed more of Leah's philosophy injected into the plan.

I can not do justice to the breadth of inventiveness of Leah's work and highly recommend taking a look at her projects including LED clothing, sewing circuits, quilt snaps, LED bracelets. I myself might actually invest in some of the electronic sequins - my girls would certainly love to have something other than buttons on the clothes I make for them (btw I am not the dress maker my mother was but can just about sew a dress but my speciality is Halloween costumes where impression over accuracy is what matters!).

Yes, Yes - More Thoughtful Efforts on Technologies for Women!

It was fun to read the blog posting yesterday, 'No Pink Phones - A New Twist on Technology for Women'. I have tried to keep my blog postings also free of pink-ness where possible, because making a current technology pink doesn't mean to say it's addressing the womens market.

I credit Dr. Ying Chen for setting up La-Yin with putting her action where her heart is and setting up her own business to, 'create experiences for modern women by fusing High-Tech together with fashion and style'. The products from La-Yin currently includes different styles of USB keys, laptop covers, mobile straps.

It would be wondeful to see some of this exterior technology style influence the technology itself. What are womens needs of the items that we are attracted to dress up. For instance consider the Amazon Kindle (reader), imagine if that was designed for a female audience how might it differ in design? are there any distinct features or aesthetics that should be considered differently to accomodate needs? I haven't yet had an opportunity to use one, however what I'd like to see again is if the product team was predominantly female in the first place and considering a predominantly female market how may the product have emerged differently. Today its often consideration after the fact. Take a look at the Kindle and see how you might design it differently.

The Rise of the Smart Phone for Women

An article published in the NYT today stated that the number of women who are purchasing smartphones has doubled to 10.4M in the last year. They are quoting newly released research from Nielsen Mobile.

Smartphone companies are starting to find women's sweet spot by targeting ads for their latest phones in Elle, Oprah, and Martha Stewart Living. A slight aside, is I've noticed in many 'House & Garden' type of magazines that in the beautiful glamour shots there is usual a photo of where the laptop fits into the house. These gadgets and technologies are part of our lives and if so they had better meet the beauty bar that the rest of female lives aspire to (note I use the word 'aspire' as so few of us achieve it.

I'm excited by what this power of gadgetry ownership will lead to - if there aren't a hundred companies out there figuring out how to provide 'quickmoments' for women on their portable smartphones then we're just not thinking right. For starters, how about reading the advice of the Download Squad on how to download books to your phone.

Hmmm... now when will my phone be able to give me a neck massage - wait there's an idea here - a massage phone accessory that plays a particular playlist while you relax and talk with a friend on the phone.

Anyone want to brainstorm on unbelievable services, accessories or more for the really smart phones?

A Long Quick Moment: SATC

I know this blog is meant to be about Quick Moments and instantaneous moments of happiness brought about by using technology but I can't help but comment on the fabulous evening I've just had. For the first time in my life I attended a movie on opening night that was sold out and it wasn't an action flick but a chick flick - Sex and the City, what else could it be? And the astonishing thing is I cannot recall ever going to a sell out movie where the audience was 90% female.

Now the interesting thing is I have only watched a couple of episodes as we don't have cable at our house. However there had been a vibe building around this movie that suggested it would be an experience.

For over 2 hours this movie held the audience captive - they laughed, cheered, and called out during the movie. There was camaraderie in the crowd. Imagine for years this audience had been watching the episodes in isolation of their homes, and finally everyone was out watching it together. It was absolutely an experience to see this movie on opening night to feel the female power in the theater. What was the magic formula and how can Hollywood produce more spellbinding block busters for women. I certainly hope so. And while it wasn't exactly a technological experience, maybe I can make it count that my friend ordered and paid for the tickets online before the show in fear it would sell out (how right she was).

BTW I was also very pleased to see included in the movie reference to 'Bag-Borrow-Steal' which I mentioned in my post in January. Such a cool idea, great to see it in operation in the film. Now to develop the life style for the bag.

A Girlie Gadget that's not Pink

I have been surprised how little I have found in the gadget department for women since I started this blog at the beginning of the year. My original intent of the blog was to highlight technologies that brought pleasurable experiences that didn't require overhead of learning or figuring out what/how to get the experience. Well, today I found on http://www.slashgear.com/ a blog post that highlights a girl gadget that's simple and useful - it's a compact mirror that has a built in usb and a card reader inside. I think it's a pretty neat combination of features. The writer is pleased to find it doesn't come in pink, me too.

Or may be I like the skinny mac...

Oh, the choices of a laptop that I could have are too much to bare. They come in so many shapes and styles, or are certainly on their way. Take a look at the new ultra-skinny MacBook Air that was shown today at Mac world. May be I don't want a pink pc anymore but a sophisticated designer-like shinny Mac.

Wait a minute, if they really delivered on what women want we'd have an all our personal information, etc., in our glamorous sparkling USB keys that we could plug into any fashionable laptop computer that we could rent from Bag, borrow, and steal. Then I wouldn't have to choose either/or - I could have all of them for a small rental price. Okay, my personal quick moment today is imagining I can change my laptop to match my outfit, my mood, or my meeting or occasion - it's only this implementation that is holding me back from being CEO of the next successful blaptz.com social network, okay I know it takes more than a trendy laptop to be successful but I'm sure it would help me on my way, I would feel the part.