What a surprise: Women like smartphones, too
Maybe the New York Times is still stuck a little bit behind the times, but why exactly is it news that women are now starting to be more interested in smartphones?
Does the New York Times assume that women are not interested in having a decent browsing experience on their phones? Keeping in touch with friends through IM? Or that they have a natural aversion against using a QWERTY keyboard for sending text messages?
As Slate’s Noreen Malone puts it:
To affect surprise that women are using technology and the Internet in an era when it’s nearly impossible to be engaged with the world and ignore either one is a rich bit of condescension for the paper that endorsed Hillary in the Democratic primary. Was the editorial board expecting her to receive those 3 a.m. phone calls on a hot pink Swarovski-studded BlackBerry Pearl?
Now there is some interesting data in the NYT piece – most importantly that both men and women are most interested in the Internet capabilities of the phones. But I’m also surprised that ‘Ease of use’ only ranks at the bottom of the scale, with 7% of women and 8% of men considering it a priority.
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