Email : belinda@ladygeek.org.uk
Nov
Guilt free technology
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I know what I want for Christmas. A guilt free laptop that is small and yes I am embarrased to say it, but one I can carry in my handbag. I want to take it to a cafe, pretend I am Carrie from Sex in the City, write stuff on long journeys and most importantly, I don’t want to share it with anyone.  For the first time you can buy an Asus EEE laptop for under £200 which is incredible value. My previous laptop (which I share with my husband and he gets first dibs on) cost us around a £1000 - a price I could never justify for myself.Â
Naturally this is a much less capable machine than the latest macbook. It’s screen is tiny and it’s CPU goes at a fraction of the Macbook’s speed. On the other hand do most people need all that power? It seems crazy that people are buying multi Gigahertz machines when many people, especially women, just want to browse the Internet, check their email and write a presentation.   Most women are not turned on by gigahertz, ram, horse power and all those phrases that baffle them into thinking that technology is something to be feared and intimidated by.
Also, changing the price-point of a laptop changes the way we think about it: Previously with laptops costing in excess of £1000 we would probably hope to get three good years of life out of the machine. If we only pay £200 for a machine we can upgrade the machine every year. By the end of the 3rd year, the frequent upgrader who spends less
would probably end up with a better machine in her bag.
If you are no longer asking women to choose between holiday abroad or a car or a laptop but sacrifice the equivalent of a posh meal, this makes the purchase much more appealing and to some extent takes some of the fear out of the purchase as it positions it as an every day purchase. Â
Lets just hope that Father Christmas is reading this and my wish comes true…
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Carrie from Sex in the City used a hulking-great PowerMac G3 which was spectacularly obsolete even when the series was starting.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/shinyshiny/IbAC/~3/189304880/
Just seen this article from Shiny Shiny which states men are much more likely to go for the latest bling with 21% upgrading their gadgets compared to 11% of women. Women are just more practical. More reasons why this Asus is going to be a success in my view.
Ooh I disagree. Women aren’t marketed at with tech gear for the most part (I discount Pink versions) – and, as with games, have to contend with the fact that electronics are marketed as boys’ toys, generally.
But given the right marketing, I would expect women to want as much performance, styling and software as the next bloke. Women already spend more time on the internet than men do, as reported recently in the news. Why wouldn’t we want the best gear?
I agree that women want the ‘best’ gear. And some women do want as much performance, styling and software as the next bloke. This is about a third of all women (Source: Jupiter research 2007). However, there is also about a third of all women who whilst absolutely want the styling, don’t need or use or care enough to find out about the interoperability, functionality etc… unless they are going to use it on a daily basis. I am one of these women. I just want the technology to work for me. I don’t want to tinker with it for hours and find out what all the functions do (like Sal!) The issue is that companies then go on the assumption that these women are not interested in technology and ‘dumb it down’ or ‘pink it up’ as you say.
You also make an interesting point about women using the Internet more than men. Whilst that true, what’s more interesting is what they use it for. Most women use the Internet in a practical way to help them save time and get jobs done. There is only a small proportion of women who use the Internet for online research when it comes to technology. The Internet is great if you know what you are looking for. However, many women want to browse, question, experiment and touch the technology they buy. For many women, buying technology, whether its a HDTV for themselves or game for their child, can be an incredibly daunting experience.
This sounds like a nice piece of technology. In doing some research I read that it will soon be available in pink! http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/eee-pc-review.ars/1
If this piece of technology is as good as it sounds, it will certainly be a hit with men and women.
Did you get it?
Hi Amelia, no I didn’t get the EEE but got one for my nephew and tried it out for a week. I agree with PC Pro, its a really great machine, its light, easy to use and functions well. The reason I didn’t get one is that Asus announced a 16Gb version of the EEE with a slightly bigger screen. This would not only be good enough to hold my complete set of working files (in addition to the basic Linux software), but will be good enough to run presentations which is the main thing I would need it for. Even with the additional cost of these components, the EEE is a tiny fraction of competing lightweight laptops, for example Apple’s spectacularly overpriced Mac Air. I’ll keep you posted!