Meet Jane Geek

In this recent Business Week article, Meet Jane Geek, the following quote made me laugh:

Women are far less likely than men to feign understanding of new technology...

Ha! That would be an interesting article. This one rehashes the article we've seen here at Misbehaving.net so many times before: technology companies discovering that women comprise half, if not more, of their customer base, and responding appropriately. Hello! Finally, thank you.

Managers from Dell Inc.'s marketing and public relations staff flew from their Round Rock (Tex.) headquarters to New York earlier this year to meet with editors and sales reps at a dozen publications. Their mission wasn't too surprising: Get editors to print more about their computers, televisions, and pocketPCs.

It was the choice of magazines that was unusual, including Oprah Winfrey's O at Home, Ladies' Home Journal, and CosmoGIRL -- not exactly publications on the company's regular radar screen, despite the obviously large number of women tapping keyboards in offices and cafés. In barely six months, though, Dell's laser printer, plasma TV, and notebook computer were featured as must-haves in gift guides in shelter magazines Real Simple and O at Home. And in August, CosmoGIRL gave Dell's 700m, 4-lb. notebook a "kiss of approval."