ePad Femme: Finally, a Tablet For Women. (Insert Sexist Joke Here)

Middle East-based manufacturer Eurostar has created a female-targeted ePad that comes pre-loaded with everything a girl could need, assuming that girl is a Barbie doll.

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Courtesy of Eurostar

Women everywhere, rejoice!  No longer must we rely on males to download apps for our digital tablets. Middle East-based manufacturer Eurostar has created a female-targeted ePad that comes pre-loaded with everything a girl could need: apps for yoga, cooking and weight loss. We would make a sexism joke here, but we really don’t have to.

Unfortunately, a joke this product is not. The tablet, being billed as “the world’s first tablet exclusively for women,” according to the Jerusalem Post, is aimed at providing the fairer sex with a convenient way of accessing apps without the burden of having to choose and download– because downloading apps is such an inconvenience. And for that matter everybody knows we only care about, you know, women stuff.

(MORE: Bic Creates Pens ‘For Her’: Amazon Reviewers Turn on the Snark)

The $190, 8-inch touch-screen tablet runs on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system with a 1.5 GHz processor and 16 GB of storage all on a dainty pink screen. Though GulfNews.com first reported on the tablet in October, it resurfaced in February, being advertised as the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for women in the Gulf.

Mani Nair, associate vice president for marketing at Eurostar, told The Media Line that there was no sexist intent when curating which apps to preload onto the tablet, the Jerusalem Post adds. App subjects include yoga, recipes, pregnancy, a clothing-size converter and a weight loss assistant.

“Whether you talk about Google or the Internet, an ocean of information is available,” Nair said. “Eurostar is now focusing on pre-loaded applications, which makes it easy for the user to buy the gadget and have it ready for use.”

But for many the tablet draws more irritation than interest. Saudi feminist blogger Eman Al Nafjan pointed out that  women in the Gulf are extremely tech-savvy and spend a lot of free time online. “Whoever made this Tablet [sic] doesn’t understand us very well,” she said.

But that doesn’t mean the concept is completely void of potential. As Slate noted, tailoring products for women is a good idea, but it’s more than just a matter of knowing your demographic. Selecting stereotypical female apps and slapping on a pink background may have not been the best way to reach women.

As of mid-February, Eurostar had sold an estimated 7,000 ePad Femme tablets. We’re looking forward an onslaught of “rave reviews” once the product hits Amazon, just like those for Bic’s Cristal pens “For Her”.

MORE: The Price of Sexism