While we still tend to cast modern men as gadget-obsessed, DIY over-enthusiasts and women as purveyors of style with an eye for the cosmetic, when it comes to buying a TV – rather than a handbag – it's ultimately the technology that counts.
"TV is a curious combination of home interior and technology," says Wayne Hemingway, co-founder of fashion label Red or Dead and now also Hemingway Design, which specialises in affordable social design, including interiors, technology and product design.
"Women often think about how the decor will not be intruded on by the TV. From a design point of view, they prefer something more neutral. Men on the other hand are obsessed with how things work. Research shows that, more often than not, men do the hooking up and women think about how things will look in the home."
But Hemingway, whose company is now one of the leading house-design practices in the UK, is the first to admit that pinning down the difference can lead to an over-generalisation and, besides, some of the old stereotypes – that only men play computer games, for example – are still being convincingly challenged. Just four years ago, women made up one-third of British gamers.
The greatest variation between different models of television lies in what their different technologies do and what content you watch, not what colour it is. And it seems a sleek, modern television and the sensory experience of increasingly bigger screen sizes appeals to both sexes.
"There's not a lot you can do about colour and design for television – it cuts off appeal," says Hemingway. "If you take a technology to market that's pink, for example, you always end up with lower sales. TVs tend now to be slim and modern, with large screens. There's a lot of black and chrome. [The main differences are to do with HD and digital capabilities and screen size.] Technology is doing the work and that's the right way. If it got to the point where people were thinking about colour before what the TV did then that's wouldn't be good. You're not making a decorative choice like a cushion. Like a laptop, you choose it for its reliability."
However, there are some amazing televisions on the international market that do break the norm, says Hemingway. "I saw a fantastic one recently – a 60s-style, sputnik-looking TV by LG but it's only available in America at the moment. That's appealing to a lot of women. It's beautiful, it really is," he says. "But it's absolutely a design for aficionados – a tiny niche proportion of buyers."
While John Kempner, chief television buyer for John Lewis, agrees that anecdotal evidence from their stores suggest men still tend to be more focused on technological detail and features – such as how many HDMI sockets a television has – he says technical and cosmetic factors are important to whoever is buying, male or female.
"Men are becoming much more interested in style and women much more interested in technology. The latest generation of televisions fulfil both of those needs – they look fantastic on or off and they give the best picture and sound," he says.
So when it comes to TVs, men and women may not be so far apart.
