Men Are From VoIP, Women From PSTN

A recent HarrisInteractive survey about VoIP awareness in the U.S. and Britain found this intriguing fact: Men are more aware of VoIP than women by about a two-to-one margin. And, one would assume, from those numbers, they're much more likely to use VoIP as well. The findings are quite clear --- men are far more aware of the technology. The report found, "Women are far less likely than men to have heard about VoIP in both Great Britain (28% of women vs. 57% of men) and the United States (34% of women vs. 62% of men)."

Men, not surprisingly, have more knowledge than women about specific VoIP providers as well. Some 54% of men have heard of Vonage, for example, while only 34% of women have. And 58% of men have heard of Skype, while only 30% of women have.

I'm not going to delve too deeply into the gender wars here, or risk incurring the wrath of various PC constituencies. But there are some very obvious reasons why men are more aware of VoIP.

First may be the geekiness gene. How many women walk around wearing pencil protectors, after all? And when it comes to wearing cell phones on their belts, men beat women hands down.

The other big reason may be the way that men and women approach the use of telephones. Talk to a guy about telephones, and he'll give you the technical specs on his cell phone and its top five competitors. Or he'll give you the inside dope about the best ways to save money while making long-distance calls.Talk to a woman about telephones...well, actually, she's most likely already on the phone talking to her friends, so you'll just have to wait.

The point is that often men care more about the technology behind the call, and women just want a clear connection so they can talk easily. So as long as VoIP remains more techie than mainstream, it'll be more of a guy thing.