It's always been unclear to me what sorts of special female activities women would use computers for that would differ from what men use them for. I work part time in IT, and I think this has usually been a bit of a non-starter for many computer companies, because there's no felt need. Although male computer users probably are the default that designers have in mind, there are few differences in how we use our computers. It's probably still true that men spend more time playing computer games and watching porn, but there are also many female gamers, and just about everyone uses the video capabilities of their computers, whether it's for porn or not. So I'm not really clear on why we need different computers for men and women.

So you realize that women are not a niche market, but you're still trying to design is niche product for women?
By calling out "this laptop is for the ladies" you're implying that all the other laptops are for men and thus men=regular, women=other. Can't we all be regular?

One pet peeve of mine in this area is the marketing of things to moms. Computers/printers that make photo sharing easy are always marketed to moms who need to send out those pics to the grandparents. Men are parents too. If you want to market to parents then market to parents, not just moms!

I can not think of a single way that my lack of penis gives me different computer needs than are offered to "regular" users.

If you have to ask "What do you women use your laptop for?" then you're already doing it wrong. Fucking hell.

Since it's Equal Pay Day and I'm feeling cynical, perhaps they should look into a computer sold only to women that costs 75% as much and works twice as hard. (Hey, I wouldn't say no to some extra processing power.)

Thank you for asking. I would agree that women don't need special computers because we don't use computers very differently from men, but since I have your attention, I'll give you some advice. My advice isn't so much about women as it is about 20-somethings.

When I graduated from college and moved into my first apartment, I never bought a television. What I did was buy a large monitor and convert my laptop into a media center. I might buy a TV tuner, but with Netflix and Hulu, I don't need one yet.

I am also using my computer for skype. My computer is my television, my "landline," my radio, and my sound-system.

Most of the people who I went to college with are using their computers as their primary television.

I don't plan to buy another full powered laptop. I will get a high powered desktop for gaming and processing, and I will get a netbook. I probably won't jump on the netbook for a least a year because they haven't found their sweet spot yet. Laptops are a thing of the past.

Netbooks need to take a hint from the kindle and use screens that can work outside in full sunlight. I would like to be able to sit in the park, or in a chair with my back to the window, or in the passenger seat of the car, and be able to see the computer screen.

The ideal computer for me at the moment would be a netbook that was built for use outside and was GPS capable. I would like it if the screen could be rotated to face outward and operate with the netbook closed, so that it could double as an e-book reader or GPS device. I would love it if the screen could be used with a stylus so that I could underline or make handwritten notes on a pdf or sketch paths on a map.

The idea computer would be highly shock resistant and somewhat water proof.

That's not too much to ask, is it? ~_^

I'm thinking anything electronic needs to vibrate at 180 ppm and have a three-hour battery that you can sit on and watch through an entire disc of "24."

It's a marketing issue, not a development issue.
If I'm investing money in a computer, it's a serious purchase. I'm not buying it for pretty colors or for cuteness or some other quality that developers think will make it appeal to women. I'm buying it to work hard and play hard.
The computers themselves shouldn't be any different than how they already are. But the marketing should change!
I don't want to see ads with women using the computers to, I don't know, share pictures of their kids (like jackie pointed out). I want ads showing women using computers the same way men do. A lot of ads are already doing this, to a certain extent (the "I am a PC" ad, and some business-oriented ads).
Otherwise, you're alienating a big part of the market by thinking they're looking for something in a computer other than what they really are.
And as has been mentioned above, a lot of this is generational. Younger consumers, male and female, use computers differently than older ones. Breaking it down gender-wise is just going to be confusing: I'm 22, and I stayed up late last night pwning my brother on TF2, but my 59-year-old mother just learned to copy and paste. We need different computers. But neither of us needs a "woman's" computer.