Editor's note: This article appeared in the July 30, 2009, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.

Although women are more likely than men to rate most smartphone features as very important, the confusion that accompanies shopping for electronics is a major deterrent in women selecting smartphones, according to research conducted by GfK Roper, a New York division of Nuremberg, Germany, research company The GfK Group, on behalf of Best Buy Mobile, Minneapolis. Among those who plan to buy a smartphone in the next 12 months, 47 percent say they are too confused to make a decision yet. More than half are torn about which brand or model to buy, including 52 percent of women and 42 percent of men. Close to 40 percent of those planning purchases say they have not taken the plunge yet because they hate shopping for electronics, period, with 45 percent of women expressing this concern. And 64 percent of the respondents overall say they think the devices are just too pricey.

Women are far more eager to rate texting as very important (71 percent compared to 46 percent of men), cameras (55 percent of women versus 30 percent of men), listening to music on mobile devices (44 percent of women versus 25 percent of men) and game functions (14 percent versus 9 percent of men). Women were also more likely to rank GPS and book-reading features as very important. Men, on the other hand, are far more likely to rank calendar functions that link to their computers as very important (46 percent versus 39 percent).