There are more subtle touches, too, like the wider spacing of the keys on a new Sony ultraportable computer notebook that goes on sale next week. It accommodates the longer fingernails that women tend to have. Some of the latest cellphones made by LG Electronics have the cameras’ automatic focus calibrated to arms’ length. The company observed that young women are fond of taking pictures of themselves with a friend. Men, not so much.

Nikon and Olympus recently introduced lines of lighter, more compact and easy-to-use digital single-lens-reflex cameras that were designed with women in mind because they tend to be a family’s primary keeper of memories.

The Nikon D40X is 20 percent smaller than a standard Nikon digital S.L.R. camera and can be easily carried around the neck or slipped into a handbag. It has many of the automated features normally found on a point-and-shoot camera like preset shooting modes. Camera makers wanted to reach the female market with digital S.L.R. cameras because they carry a higher profit margin than the point-and-shoot models.

The consumer electronics industry has generally come to accept the fairly obvious: many, perhaps most, electronic products are meant for the home and the home is largely controlled by women, whether or not men and children live there, said Robert F. Gee, vice president for marketing at Coby Electronics, based in Queens.

“Women are becoming more of the decision makers,” Mr. Gee said. “When large-screen TVs first came out it was all about sports. Now it’s much more about features used in seeing movies. Women are a big part of that audience and the designs are reflecting that.”

Coby has begun to speak more directly to women by advertising some of its products, like a portable dual-screen DVD player for the car, in Cosmopolitan magazine.