Though men might be more commonly associated with buying gadgets, the tech industry is not as much of a boy's club as one may think. Aside from one consumer electronic category, women are the consumers most likely to shop for tech toys.

 

When it comes to smartphones, laptops and tablets, more women than men can be found waiting in those long lines outside the big electronics stores. At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, HSN noted that women expressed more interest in many of the hottest electronic gadgets than men. Women have shown more interest in tablets, laptops and smartphones, and are two to three percent more likely to make purchases than their male counterparts. The only category where men make up a larger percentage of interested parties is with the intent to purchase flat-screen LCD televisions.

 

Parks Associates, a marketing intelligence firm, was in charge of gathering information from female and male consumers and drawing conclusions about their intentions. The Dallas-based firm collected surveys from around 2,000 adults in late 2011 and found that women are more interested in tech gadgets than men.

 

Furthermore, research indicates that after purchasing a top tech gadget, women are more inclined than men to learn about the device, participating in digital media offerings, like watching movies online or playing games with phones or tablets.

 

These result might question conventional wisdom, but are not necessarily that surprising. A survey commissioned by Rebtel, a mobile voice over IP provider, found that women are more likely to use social media than men. More than 60 percent of women use social media to stay in touch with their friends and family members. This reality could be fueling women's greater interest than men in devices that enable social media and digital communication. What's more, it has long been known that women are the primary consumer decision-makers in the home, and more and more women are now flexing their purchasing power in the tech market.

 

Although personal use gadgets are at the top of the list for women's purchases, females have also shown a growing interest in tech-powered appliances and other home-related convenience items.

 

The stereotype that tech items are a guy thing is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Women are at the forefront in gadget purchases and becoming the prime decision-makers on these types of purchases. 

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