When she recalls people’s initial reactions to the Palm Centro, one word sticks out for Stephanie Richardson.

A device with a controversial keyboard, a device with an aging operating system, a device that’s supposed to attract a whole new market, and “cute” is the operative word?

But for Richardson, the product marketing manager for the Centro, “cute” was a good sign. It meant that the market Palm was going after—under-35 individuals who had never owned a smart phone, many of them women—saw the Centro not as a collection of technological wizardry crammed into a small package, but a device that was accessible and friendly.

The CR series also addressed keyboard ergonomics in a new way. “One of our studies of females told us that keyboards and long fingernails don’t go very well together—a lady’s fingernails would get stuck,” Lauwaert said. “So we went with the separated keyboard, because it would reduce the amount of mistyping.”

Sony realized that some of the features, such as the keyboard, could be applied to other products in its portfolio, and not necessarily ones that were as woman-focused. “It’s a mainstream feature,” Lauwaert explained. “Anybody and everybody can benefit from that. It’s something we’ll be expanding across our product lines, and will serve as a visual differentiator, and unification of the VAIO product line.”

One of the defining features of the VAIO line—indeed, any consumer electronics device that markets itself toward women—is the use of colors, such as pink, that provoke mixed reactions in its intended audience. In fact, many women don’t think of color first when picking a product.

“We found that when you ask men and women what are some of the variables they consider when evaluating a product for purchase, things such as color and appearance are pretty far down the list,” Herbert said. “You have to satisfy the basic needs first, then you see elements such as color appear.”

Color does play a role for women, but not necessarily in the way you might think. CEA’s study showed that 28 percent of women were more interested in having a choice of colors in consumer electronic products, compared to 8 percent of men. However, of the women polled, 59 percent of them didn’t want their gadgets to be pink.

In fact, many women feel that a product’s color can send the wrong message, even when all other aspects of it are sound.

“It’s not about feminity being expressed through color palette,” said Laura Jakobson, the brand strategy director at the design firm Hornall Anderson. “It used to be women had to claim, ‘I’m a woman and I can do this,’ and try to be proud to be a woman, but we’ve kind of transcended that.”

So while companies may have initially thought about design in a female context, they were in fact designing products that would appeal to a whole new set of users, both men and women alike, who wanted to differentiate themselves with their cell phones as much as they did with their clothes or cars. In fact, designing products for a specific gender is, in many ways, too vague.

Given that cell phones are highly personal products, it’s difficult to design a prototypical phone for women. Younghee Jung, a senior design manager at Nokia, travels around the world on behalf of the company to study how people interact with technology—and happens to be a woman.

“We design phones based on how people relate to mobile phones,” Jung said. Some people are very into showing off, some are into experiencing something new, some are into using it as a work tool, some are into ease of use. It’s not actually according to gender.”

Nokia’s line of N-series phones might not strike someone as particularly female-centric: They’re larger and heavier than other smart phones, come in a limited number of drab colors, and boast feature sets that would seem to appeal more to presumably geekier, early-adopting male consumers. As Jung noted, many women feel that high-end, high-featured phones are too big, and their keypads not the best for typing with long fingernails.

Yet in Thailand, according to Jung, those same phones are very popular among women. “Our marketing manager mentioned that many women use N-series because it makes them look smarter compared to using some girlie phone,” Jung said. “You can’t really generalize what women want, because you always have to consider the trade-offs. If I do need and like the functions, I will probably overlook the size issues. Choosing a phone is a lot like choosing a boyfriend. You cannot look at just one aspect of the product—he may be handsome, but he may have a personality problem. A mobile phone is something that you wake up with and go to sleep with.”

In places where there’s no electricity, the cell phone actually helps people find their beds. One such inspiration came from India, where Nokia discovered that women were using their cell phones’ screens to see in their un-electrified houses at night. From that insight, the company added a small LED light to the outside of some phones so that users could walk around without bumping into a wall. But it’s an idea that’s useful in other parts of the world, too. “A torch light can be used in many other contexts, like a parking lot or somewhere that’s particularly dark,” Jung said.

Even though they may ultimately use products the same way as men, starting off with womens’ inspirations for product design may be more helpful in creating a device that works equally well in a number of environments. Factors such as ease of use, while important to both sexes, can become more refined through the crucible of a woman’s dual roles in society, as she balances both work and home life, and needs her technology to function equally well in both situations. “When it comes to inspiring a design solution, what women think is a very interesting place to start with,” said Jung. “If it’s good for women, it’s good for men, too.”