Whether women buy more tech products than men seems to be another facet of the subject emerging right now.

According to a new report from Parks Associates, more women than men are downloading movies and music, women do the majority of game-playing across some platforms, and women have higher “purchase intentions” than men do when it comes to some electronics.

In the 1986 movie “Ferris Bueller's Day Off,” Ferris got a computer, while Jeannie got a car.

Women are 40 percent more likely than men to play games on Facebook, represent the majority of Nintendo Wii players, and match men in terms of owning and playing Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PS3, says the report. And women are 73 percent more likely than men to have watched a full-length TV show online in the past 30 days.

Parks Associates also says that women have higher purchase intentions than men do when it comes to buying popular devices like tablets, laptops and smartphones, though men’s interest surpassed women’s when it came to purchasing flat-screen LCD TVs.

Intent, of course, is different from pulling the trigger and pressing the e-commerce “buy” button.

This Nielsen study, meanwhile, refutes the idea that women aren’t likely to purchase advanced TVs.

And while the Parks Associates report says 88 percent of women purchased tech-related items last year, compared to 83 percent of the men surveyed, not all recent reports point to women as besting men in tech-buying.

Confused yet? You’re not alone.

Let’s look at this chronologically:

In 2008, men were estimated to spend $902 annually on consumer electronics, compared with the $558 women spent on tech each year.

By 2009, women were spending more on consumer electronics than men, according to the CEA. It says women accounted for $55 billion of the $96 billion spent on electronics gear that year.

But in 2010, as our WSJ colleague points out here, the average man reported spending $3 on consumer electronics for every $2 the average woman said she spent.

With all of the fluctuating data, perhaps comparing women to men when it comes to consumer tech spending isn’t the right way to look at it. It’s how much growth is occurring overall when it comes to women and consumer tech.

We’ve come a long way from this 2003 report on women being “comfortable” purchasing PCs and DVD hardware.

Despite the fact that women were still trailing men in terms of consumer electronics purchases in 2010 — women spent $631 on average, compared to men’s average annual spend of $969 — women still spent $73 more on tech products than they did in 2009. And that number is expected to continue to grow.

You’ve probably heard a lot about the emergence of female purchasing power. A lot of this may have to do with the current state of the economy and shifts within households: While men are recovering more quickly from the recession — regaining more than one out of three jobs lost, compared to women regaining about one in four — men have been hit harder over the past few years, hovering at a full percentage point higher in terms of unemployment. (Some of the recent employment gains for men may also be attributed to a disproportionate number of men working in the government sector who have been regaining their jobs.)

Many women consider themselves to be chief financial officers — of the home. According to a Harvard Business Review report from last year, U.S. women continue to say they control more than 70 percent of total consumer spending. Earlier reports indicate that this number could be even higher, but some researchers say the number is murky.

Another Nielsen study shows big differences between what female consumers in developed countries spend money on versus what females in emerging countries spend on: More than half of women in emerging countries focus on allocating household funds for their children’s education, compared to 16 percent of women in developed countries, who are more likely to spend on vacations and other items. And yet, in both developed and emerging countries, more than half of women surveyed say that purchases of computers, mobile phones and smartphones have changed their lives for the better.

Bottom line: Women are making more buying decisions, and that includes consumer technology products, though the growth to date seems incremental. And that doesn’t necessarily have to be measured against what men are buying — though marketers like to know these things.

We can only hope that increases in women’s tech purchasing also means that manufacturers and marketers are getting savvier about that age-old question — what do women want? — and that the answer isn’t necessarily hardware in stereotypically girlish hues.

While it never had a big footprint on the floor of the show itself, for the past three years it has hosted media and showgoers in the Dell Suites — an entire floor of The Palms Casino Resort tricked out with the latest in Dell hardware. This year, however, the company is approaching CES with a bit more restraint.

It won’t be commandeering the The Palms’ Hardwood Suite to create a “smart living space.” Instead, sources say, Dell is opting for moderation, taking meetings in hotel suites and CES conference rooms and perhaps piggybacking on the keynote of one of its partners for a big product announcement (ultrabooks, anyone?).

So the company will still have some visibility at the event, just not the sort of high-profile, conspicuous-consumption-style visibility it has had in years past.

Why the shift? That’s not clear. Dell has had a very spotty record in the consumer gadget market dating back to its Axim handhelds and DJ music players. That has continued to its recent forays into smartphones and tablets. And the company’s attention has been leaning heavily toward the enterprise of late, which makes CES a markedly less useful event for it.

Indeed, speaking at the Credit Suisse conference today, Steve Felice, Dell’s president for Consumer, Small and Medium Business, said the company was looking to “prune” products to focus on more profitable areas. That message echoes comments made during Dell’s last earnings call when the company said consumer sales in the U.S. and Western Europe recently had led it to step away from “low-value” PC opportunities to focus more on servers, services and networking equipment (with a 6 percent drop in consumer revenue in the third quarter, that seems like a reasonable move). This undoubtedly factored in to the company’s decision to scale back at CES.

Dell Suites at CES 2011

Another theory: The Dell Suites concept has outlived its usefulness now that the company has Dell World, the customer-focused conference it inaugurated this year and plans to hold again in 2012. Why pay good money to deliver your message in the free-for-all, look-at-me shouting match that is CES when you can create your own platform from which to deliver it when people aren’t tired of listening?

Reached for comment, Dell confirmed that it is indeed dialing back its presence at CES and that it will be introducing a new product during a partner keynote, though it declined to specify which one.

“Over the last few months, we’ve been evaluating the most effective platforms that allow us to reach and engage our core consumers directly,” the company said in a statement provided to AllThingsD. “We will continue to have a presence at CES 2012, meeting with key retail customers, partners, investors, press and analysts, among others. In addition, we will be joining a key partner in their keynote presentation and we will be introducing a new product at the show. As we look ahead to calendar year 2012, we will be focused on engaging our various stakeholders through uniquely Dell experiences, such as the recently concluded Dell World and other Dell-specific events.”

Reached for comment, the Consumer Electronics Association, which produces CES, said Dell has not yet told them of its intentions for CES 2012.

(Image Credit: Dell Flickr page)

MORE CES NEWS:

• Complete coverage
• HP’s Former CTO: Ultrabooks Are Nothing New, webOS Still Has Life Yet
• Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)
• What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)
• Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market
• Why Rhapsody Is (Probably) Bigger Than Spotify — In the U.S.
• Microsoft Beefing Up CeBit Presence Even as It Pulls Back on CES
• Inside the CES Lost & Found
• FCC Chairman Has New Tablet, but Same Script: More Spectrum!
• Verizon Wireless: We Want to Connect Five Devices for Every Subscriber
• Ultrabooks From HP and Lenovo That Are (Kinda, Sorta) Different
• Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video)
• Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question
• T-Mobile Expands Bobsled Messaging Service
• Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)
• Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year
• Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game
• More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone
• Exclusive: New Boss Acknowledges Windows Phone Still Has “Awareness Problem”
• And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!
• Interview: T-Mobile CEO Says No Second AT&T Deal Out There
• Grover Is at CES and I Am Missing It
• BlueStacks Bringing Android Apps to Windows 8
• Why the Future of TV Won’t Be Here Soon
• Nvidia’s Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways
• Dynamic Dual Coverage: Ballmer’s Last Act in Vegas and the BCS Championship in 3-D
• Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote
• Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV
• Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV
• Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share
• Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)
• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
• AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works
• LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way
• LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum
• Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia
• CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret
• Belkin Bringing Mobile TV to Lots of Cellphones, Will Anyone Tune In?
• Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service
• There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!
• CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out!
• Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2
• RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES
• Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops
• At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year
• Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

Shawn DuBravac, Chief Economist and Director of Research for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), says we’ll see a flood of Ultrabook unveilings at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

How many? More than anyone can reasonably keep track of.

“We expect to see 30 to 50 new Ultrabooks launched at CES,” he told PC Pro.

That’s a lot of Ultrabooks. ’Course, that number will still be dwarfed by 2012′s deluge of tablets, which is once again expected to be around 100.

MORE CES NEWS:

• Complete coverage
• HP’s Former CTO: Ultrabooks Are Nothing New, webOS Still Has Life Yet
• Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)
• What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)
• Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market
• Why Rhapsody Is (Probably) Bigger Than Spotify — In the U.S.
• Microsoft Beefing Up CeBit Presence Even as It Pulls Back on CES
• Inside the CES Lost & Found
• FCC Chairman Has New Tablet, but Same Script: More Spectrum!
• Verizon Wireless: We Want to Connect Five Devices for Every Subscriber
• Ultrabooks From HP and Lenovo That Are (Kinda, Sorta) Different
• Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video)
• Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question
• T-Mobile Expands Bobsled Messaging Service
• Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)
• Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year
• Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game
• More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone
• Exclusive: New Boss Acknowledges Windows Phone Still Has “Awareness Problem”
• And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!
• Interview: T-Mobile CEO Says No Second AT&T Deal Out There
• Grover Is at CES and I Am Missing It
• BlueStacks Bringing Android Apps to Windows 8
• Why the Future of TV Won’t Be Here Soon
• Nvidia’s Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways
• Dynamic Dual Coverage: Ballmer’s Last Act in Vegas and the BCS Championship in 3-D
• Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote
• Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV
• Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV
• Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share
• Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)
• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
• AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works
• LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way
• LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum
• Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia
• CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret
• Belkin Bringing Mobile TV to Lots of Cellphones, Will Anyone Tune In?
• Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service
• There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!
• CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out!
• Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2
• RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES
• Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops
• At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year
• Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

Either way, this canonical categorizing of the multiplicity of slates and e-readers by CEA Chief Economist and Director of Research Shawn DuBravac is pretty stunning. There are more than 100 in all, and they run the gamut from Panasonic’s diminutive 4-inch VieraTablet to Kno’s dual-14-inch-screen device. DuBravac has helpfully broken them out according to OEM, screen size and operating system (note the proliferation of Android tablets). Notably absent: Any data on pricing and availability, which isn’t too suprising since only a portion of the tablets on this list will ever need it, particularly with the iPad 2, Research In Motion’s PlayBook and whatever webOS creations Hewlett-Packard’s Palm division has cooked up headed to market.

Chart and data courtesy Shawn Dubravac

Preliminary registration figures from the Consumer Electronics Association reveal a headcount of over 120,000 attendees. That’s up roughly six percent from 113,085 last year and far more than 110,000 the CEA predicted.

A small, but not inconsequential bump, and one that suggests the industry is indeed beginning to turn the corner.

“The innovations unveiled this week at the 2010 International CES brought new optimism and opportunity to our industry and the global economy,” said CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro. “This show exceeded expectations with its innovation, optimism and excitement. What a great way to kick off the new decade.”

“Yahoo! is a top global brand whose vision is to be the center of people’s online lives, and Carol Bartz is leading the development of Yahoo!’s approach to delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. We welcome Carol Bartz to the 2010 CES keynote stage to talk about what’s next for Yahoo! and the industry.”

– Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro, Oct. 13, 2009

Now this is odd: Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz has canceled plans to deliver a keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. This not a month after the Consumer Electronics Association boasted of her participation in a press release.

The reason for the cancellation: An alleged scheduling conflict. Said CEA spokesperson Jason Oxman: “Carol Bartz informed us late last week that her schedule has changed and she will no longer be able to deliver the speech at the 2010 International CES that Yahoo and CES had announced some weeks ago.”

It’s worth noting that prior to Oxman’s remark, which was posted to the comments of Tech Trader Daily, no official announcement of Bartz’s withdrawal was made. Indeed, the CEA press release issued yesterday announcing the addition of Qualcomm (QCOM) CEO Paul Jacobs to the CES keynote roster made no mention of Bartz at all. Moreover, her bio appears to have simply disappeared from the CES site.

As I said, odd.

Such a drastic expansion of Apple-related show floor space will no doubt inspire speculation that the Mac maker plans to put in an appearance at CES. But that seems unlikely given the company’s reasons for bowing out of Macworld. “Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers,” the company said at the time. “The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.”

In any event, this is unfortunate news for Macworld and IDG, the publishing company that runs it. Without Steve Jobs or even Apple (AAPL) to help it upstage CES as Macworld has done in some years past, the event has far less to offer attendees and presenters than before. Certainly, no one is going to be decamping from Vegas in the middle of CES this year to hit Macworld. There’s no reason to. And with CES ramping up its efforts to woo Apple accessory manufacturers and retailers, well, things aren’t looking too good for Macworld, are they?

PREVIOUSLY:

• Apple Investors: “Philnote” Just Doesn’t Have the Same Ring to It
• Oh My God, They Killed Macworld! You Bastards!
• Macworld Without Steve? That’s Like “Baywatch” Without Hasselhoff

Preliminary estimates suggest the show drew 110,000 attendees, down 22 percent from 141,150 in 2008.

A nasty little drop, although it doesn’t appear to have fazed the CEA, which is propping this year’s attendance figures with some over-the-top ALL CAPS hyperbole.

2009 INTERNATIONAL CES ELECTRIFIES AND ELICITS OPTIMISM FOR GLOBAL ECONOMY, reads the CEA press release in which the group makes its peace with the massive decline in attendance.

“Our board concluded that it is essential to have the right people attend CES. Board members reported getting more business done this year than at any prior show,” said CEA CEO Gary Shapiro. “One board member reported his company scheduled 450 customer meetings prior to CES and every one of those 450 meetings took place at the show. Quality trumps quantity when it comes to exhibitors and attendees conducting business at CES.”

At least in those years when attendance is down, anyway.

[Image Credit: Flickr International's CES photostream]

Preliminary estimates suggest the show drew 110,000 attendees, down 22 percent from 141,150 in 2008.

A nasty little drop, although it doesn’t appear to have fazed the CEA, which is propping this year’s attendance figures with some over-the-top ALL CAPS hyperbole.

2009 INTERNATIONAL CES ELECTRIFIES AND ELICITS OPTIMISM FOR GLOBAL ECONOMY, reads the CEA press release in which the group makes its peace with the massive decline in attendance.

“Our board concluded that it is essential to have the right people attend CES. Board members reported getting more business done this year than at any prior show,” said CEA CEO Gary Shapiro. “One board member reported his company scheduled 450 customer meetings prior to CES and every one of those 450 meetings took place at the show. Quality trumps quantity when it comes to exhibitors and attendees conducting business at CES.”

At least in those years when attendance is down, anyway.

[Image Credit: Flickr International's CES photostream]

“Innovation is the best medicine to end economic stagnation,” Shapiro said. Well, if that’s the case, perhaps we need to up the prescription a bit. Because for 2009, the CEA is projecting a 0.6 percent drop in revenue–if all goes well. Things should be better in 2010, which, according to Shapiro, will herald a return to growth in the industry. Again, if all goes well. Says Shapiro, “Innovation is the moon that will cause the economic tide to blossom.”

Innovation is the moon that will cause the economic tide to blossom.

And rising on that economic tide, a million little remote-control boats, each with a little corporate logo and a diminutive CEO. And all of them, to a one, sailing forth into a new dawn of profitability. A profitability brought forth by growing unit sales, which are the sun, its every ray a glorious new revenue stream refracted in the glistening waves.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang emerged from his hibernation den over at Yahoo yesterday and didn’t see his shadow.

So do better-than-expected revenues mean spring is on the way for the struggling Web giant? We’ll see, but it means we might see a lot more of the shy-of-late Yang, who accepted a big keynote slot at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

On the first day of the gadgetfest, held every January and run by the Consumer Electronics Association, Yang will appear in a prime slot on Monday, Jan. 7, at 11 a.m., at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater.

Said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA: “As content and technology continue to intertwine and create new ways to connect consumers with information and each other, we look forward to hearing [Jerry] Yang’s views on the evolution of Internet technology and its impact on consumer technology products.”

So does BoomTown, who will be front and center at the show to see Yang, trying to get the attention of our favorite Web CEO. (Zuckerberg’s not even close!)

It would be nicer still to have lunch with him, of course, and we would if you give early and often to our efforts to raise money for DonorsChoose.org.

So go now and click on through to our AllThingsD page on DonorsChoose.org here or use the thermometer on the left side of this page to give early and often!

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Because it is well and good to help help BoomTown in the October Tech Blogger Challenge for DonorsChoose.org, which funds classroom projects in high-need public schools, using the Web to match teacher project requests with donors.

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Besides raising funds for kids who need it, we also hope to win an award Yahoo is sponsoring for the tech blogger who garners the biggest number of donors–a free lunch with Yang.

It’s either that or I will have to rush the stage at CES!

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