Women love hi-tech gizmos

British women are throwing away their strappy, blister-inducing Jimmy Choos in favour of groovy gadgets, according to a study released today.

Gadget girls spend an average of £478 on gizmos each year, compared to just £74 on shoes, the Sony Ericsson survey discovered.

Women are also more interested in the shape, size and colour of their shiny new playthings than men, and over a third would forego their favourite shoes, lipstick and diary in favour of a mobile phone.

The average gadget gal owns £1,605 of kit, and a surprising 15 per cent own more than £3,000 worth of gizmos. Thirteen per cent of women will spend more than £1000 on gadgets per year.

Peter Marsden, managing director at Sony Ericsson, said: "No-one wants to be too embarassed to get their phone out of their handbag or lay it on the table in the pub."

Women aren’t as technologically inept as you might think, either – only 23 per cent ask their male partners for help with their gadgets, with most preferring to teach themselves.

“It wasn’t until gadgets started looking so stylish and sexy that women began seeing them as more than just some geeky piece of technology,” said Vanessa Miedler, retail editor at Tatler Magazine.