iPhone: Women, Fat People Feel Alienated

Silicon Alley Insider:

Only one-third of Apple iPhone buyers are women. This is an improvement over the old ratio--one-fourth--but it's still nothing to be proud of. Why are women avoiding the device? Because it's hard to use with long fingernails. DailyTech:

Erica Watson-Currie of Newport Beach, Calif., a consultant and lecturer, is among the women up in arms that the iPhone won't respond to their long fingernails. She states, "Considering ergonomics and user studies indicating men and women use their fingers and nails differently, why does Apple persist in this misogyny?"

Read the whole story: Silicon Alley Insider

Comments

[longnow]

12:40 AM on 06/28/2008

Yeah, the misogyny of it all. In 30 years your PC and phone will be
a hologram with the hardware implanted in the eye lens
with nodes everywhere in cloths and the environment like phone antennai today. At that point you'll
be able upload the contents of your brain onto a node orbiting Mars with about 10 million
of your fellow earthlings filling up the inner planets with intelligent webnodes called the
sww or solarwideweb.

BTW, the author of this article put the word misogyny into
the piece to drive everybody crazy and, of coarse,
attract attention. She was successful, wasn't she?

[Helzapoppin]

07:58 AM on 06/27/2008

OH, for God's sake, it's not freakin Misogyny! Yeah, Steve Jobs hates women so he intentionally had the phone designed so that women couldn't use it. Because his hatred of women outweighs his desire for profits. Give me a break! It's a stupid development oversight.

[MikeyG]

06:39 AM on 06/27/2008

I am 350lbs and my fingers are not fat - do the hands/fingers even contain any fat? How fat do you have to be to get fat fingers? I think this article is a fake.

Maybe the iphone finger nipple will help the ladies:

http://www.iphonefingernipple.com/

[robin50]

05:37 AM on 06/27/2008

Add many people over 50. One would think with the boomers aging and being the largest group in the US population, manufacturerers and designers would take that into consideration. The trend of going smaller with more functions on all types of electronics and appliances is alienating many of us boomers.

[mexamerican]

01:55 PM on 06/27/2008

aaahhh, how verrrry sad for the boomers. boohoohoo. such an unfair world.

[Mort]

02:18 AM on 06/27/2008

They're also not popular with people who can't afford to spend all that money on a phone.

[OddieGibbon]

02:05 AM on 06/27/2008

This is why you should never go anywhere without a hamster in your pocket. The little pink nose of a hamster works just as well as a fingertip. Just whip out your little iPhone pal and with a twitch of his whiskers you'll be phoning, texting and playing music just like everyone else. And as a bonus, you're never alone with a hamster, and maybe with a little friend along with you, you won't feel compelled have a damn cellphone pressed to your face all the time.

[ErnestineBass]

12:41 AM on 06/27/2008

If you're a woman, and you want to use an iphone with ease, then give it up those ridiculous CLAWS.

Toxic fumes, petrochemical polish, fungal infections...but, but, but...CLAWS are SEXY???

Gimme a break.

[realityczech4u]

02:56 AM on 06/27/2008

Ernestine, when I saw the headline, I planned to post the following facetious comment:

"See that, Apple is 'discriminating' against woment. I suspected that Steve Jobs was a misogynist. I could see it in his eyes."

So I proceed to read the article and see this lunatic, Ms. Watson-Currie has beat me to it and has accused them seriously of misogyny. This society is going absolutely nuts. I swear it is.

[twofish]

08:23 AM on 06/27/2008

Long, elaborately decorated fingernails are a sign that one is a real lady and not just some ordinary working class broad. Which is no doubt why you frequently see them on the checkers at K-mart.

[BlueZoo]

11:17 PM on 06/26/2008

Are you kidding me? What a ridiculously vain woman! I wish to hell this was only problem I had to worry about! Geez, broad! Ever typed in your life or used a calculator? You learn to do this with the pads of your fingers. I guess you don't know how to use a computer either... Thinking about it, I wonder why you bought the iPhone but I think I already know...it was a status symbol - and now it's one you can't use! Tough in the real world, isn't it? Good grief!

[Ray46]

10:54 PM on 06/26/2008

iPhone vs Nokia E70 (biased)
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone

[zull2]

10:07 PM on 06/26/2008

And that's why most phones with touch screens come with a stylus. It doesn't matter how long your nails are then. That dual touch stuff isn't really that great of an enhancement, it's just a different way of doing what people have been doing using styluses for years.

[trinity]

09:25 PM on 06/26/2008

Oh good grief ladies, stop whining...do you want the talons or the iPhone. I never understood the whole long nail thing. Got them for my wedding and they were pretty but very very impractical. Never waste my money on those things again.

[speedingpullet]

12:15 AM on 06/27/2008

Same here trinity - I loved the way they looked,, but got bored of not being able to do up buttons.

[Mutineer]

08:28 PM on 06/26/2008

I got the ipod touch free from work. I never would have bought it myself. It is an amazing gadget, but it has numerous design flaws. First of all it's so slippery that you have to spend $30 to buy a cover for it. Also the touch keypad is a joke. I've never used the email because it's so tedious. I'm planning to spend another $25 on a 3rd party stylus. I'm neither female nor fat.

My big problem with Apple in general is that too often they go for style over substance.

[ErnestineBass]

12:45 AM on 06/27/2008

"...style over substance".

If that doesn't describe American "values" in a nutshell, I don't know what does.

[CWW]

08:17 PM on 06/26/2008

I have an iPhone and I sat on a plane next to a WOMAN who had an iPhone on Monday. She may not have had long nails. But to say that because it is hard to work an iPhone with long nails Apple is somehow not taking women into consideration is ridiculous. Is a universal remote misogynist because it has the same interface as the iPhone? What about all of the other devices? People in this country are ridiculously ignorant.

[loki]

07:36 PM on 06/26/2008

Im not fat by any means, but I just wanted to comment the one thing I hate the most about the iphone is that you can not cradle it between your cheek and shoulder so you can work with your hands while you are on the phone. Im talking about time when you dont have a blue tooth on. Not everyone likes them or can use them. I think its a major design flaw myself. But that is just my little rant on this phone.

[CWW]

08:14 PM on 06/26/2008

get a bluetooth headset!. the point of the iphone is for it to be small and compact, not so bulky enough that you can talk on it and work with both hands at the same time. i can't believe you even typed that for the world to see.

[mayrose]

06:03 PM on 06/26/2008

Hmm-all the people I know that have iPhones ARE women.