“Major companies including Apple Computer, Motorola, Eastman Kodak, Sony and Nintendo are giving products like cell phones, USB flash drives and handheld game devices bursts of color and graceful lines, and featuring women prominently in ads. Some designers, meanwhile, are developing products with an exclusively female audience in mind.”

CNetNews.com has an article up – “You go, girl gadgeteer” – looking into the increasing numbers of women who are purchasing more consumer electronics and carrying / using more ‘gadgets’.

Gina Hughes – who runs the Techie Diva blog and writes a tech column for Yahoo – is featured and quoted in the piece. Gina apparently carries a Treo, a BT headset, Ipod, and digital camera on a daily basis.

According to recent market research , women accounted for 46% of consumer-electronics spending in 2005, and their spending in this area went up by 18% in 2005 – while spending by men stayed pretty stagnant.

So … are any of you noticing this trend extending to mobile devices? Seeing more women with smartphones / PDAs and other mobile devices? Are we all getting new phones and devices that are functionally effective and more stylish because of vendors efforts to appeal more to a female audience?