(FORTUNE Magazine) – May 9 is Mother's Day, and while Mom would no doubt love to hear from you and perhaps receive a bouquet of flowers, what she really wants is a DVD player, a digital camera, a new mobile phone, or an iPod or other portable music device. At least that's what the latest market research suggests.

Only men will be surprised to learn that women are the primary buyers of consumer electronics in the U.S., spending or controlling the purchase of $55 billion worth of gizmos and gadgets last year, out of the $96 billion spent overall. Men are not the only creatures to possess a geek gene, it seems, although the gene can express itself differently in the sexes. For example, according to a study by the Consumer Electronics Association, women are less patient with needlessly complex technology. Some 68% of men in the survey said they "enjoy the challenge of figuring out high-tech gadgets." Women, being more sensible, prefer products that are functional, reliable, and simple to use. ("We prefer men that way too," my wife says.)

Computer and consumer electronics companies have long averred that ease of use is a prime objective, even as they scramble to add exotic and often mystifying features to their products. But they were marketing to men, so the goal was to make products that were "idiot-proof." ("Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots," observed Rich Cook, a programmer. "So far the universe is winning.") The gadget companies now realize that their best customers are most likely to be women who deserve and demand R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

That takes us to the Kodak EasyShare CX7430 digital camera, a four-megapixel model. Although the camera's name, CX7430, still sounds like something a mad scientist would name his robot, Kodak insists that it has created--or rather hired someone in Japan to create--the friendliest digital camera yet. The price is certainly friendly: At $280, it's one of the least expensive four-megapixel cameras.

Is this the one to get for Mom, the family's CIO (chief image officer)? To find out, we compared it with another camera that boasts sophisticated simplicity, the five-megapixel HP Photosmart R707 ($350), due out later this month.

The Kodak CX7430 achieves its simplicity in part by jettisoning advanced features and buttons. Some of the fanciest digital cameras have buttons galore and cascading software menus so dense and jargon-filled that they seem to offer controls for manipulating individual photons. The EasyShare CX7430 has ten buttons, which may seem like a lot next to your old point-and-shoot Brownie but is positively spartan compared with other four-megapixel rivals. There's the shutter button, of course, plus an on-off wheel that also provides a handful of preset scene modes (portrait, action, landscape, night, rapid-fire, closeup, video, and so on), a button for controlling the flash, a toggle switch for controlling the 3x optical zoom lens, a ten-second self-timer button that creates enough delay for the photographer to dash around to get into the shot, a review button that simplifies the process of seeing the pictures in the camera's memory, a delete button for erasing the shots that are best left uncaptured, and--for those who enjoy fiddling with gadgets--a menu button and a navigation button for drilling down more deeply into the camera's capabilities. Menu selections are simple, easy to read on the camera's bright LCD screen, and largely free of Martian. The CX7430 lacks, however, a "What the heck does this mean?" help button that some of its rivals, including the R707, have added to assist beginners with the less intuitive menu choices.

The tenth and most interesting button is marked "share," Kodak's catchall phrase for organizing, printing, or e-mailing shots. The button streamlines the process of making paper or electronic prints once the camera is connected via USB cable to a PC or Mac loaded with Kodak's EasyShare software. Setting up the EasyShare software on my Dell PC was simple, and the animated onscreen tutorial was concise and helpful. The software offers no-frills controls for transferring, storing, editing, and sharing pictures. Anyone familiar with Windows should be able to master the Kodak software with a minimum of aggravation. The CX7430 can capture short video clips as well as still images, but you'll need to spend extra for an SD memory card. The camera's battery life, even with a pair of standard, easy-to-find AA batteries, is superb.

Overall, Kodak deserves a bouquet for the ease-of-use advances it has made, not to mention for the aggressive pricing. For those who are looking for the digital equivalent of a point-and-shoot camera and who care little for advanced features that provide greater control over image exposure and artistry, the CX7430 is a good choice and a good value.

However--you knew there would be a "however," didn't you?--the picture quality of the CX7430 was simply mediocre compared with other, more expensive four-megapixel cameras. If all you desire is four-by-six or five-by-seven prints to put on the refrigerator door or send to relatives, its output is adequate, with only minor color aberrations. Kodak brazenly claims on the box that the CX7430 can take shots suitable for printing in sizes up to 20 inches by 30 inches, which is, shall we say, highly optimistic.

The picture on the HP competitor, on the other hand, is much clearer. The HP R707 costs $70 more, and for that Mom gets an extra megapixel--valuable when cropping a photo to eliminate distractions--plus a superior 3x zoom lens, and 32 megabytes of internal memory, twice the amount that Kodak provides in the CX7430. The HP camera is also smaller and more solidly built. The Kodak is not exactly flimsy, but its silver-painted plastic body compares poorly to an Altoids tin. The R707 has a stainless-steel face and a black matte body that's more comfortable to hold. It feels and looks better.

While the Kodak achieves simplicity in part by reducing features, the R707 doesn't dumb anything down. It uses a smarter version of Kodak's EasyShare technology, called HP Instant Share, which enables the user to designate, in advance, what to do with the photos once the camera is connected to a computer--print, e-mail, or stash in albums. On the back of the R707 are clearly marked buttons that bring up Instant Share e-mail and print menus. Another button, on the top, cycles through ten different shooting modes, like beach & snow or panorama, that are more versatile than the ones offered by the Kodak. In panorama mode the camera automatically stitches together sequences of shots to form a single, seamless vista. My only button bitch concerns the placement of a video-capture button right next to the camera shutter release; if you hit the wrong button, you'll be making movies a la Sofia Coppola instead of portraits a la Annie Liebowitz.

The R707 also introduces several innovative technologies that increase the chances of taking good photos. A feature called Adaptive Lighting brings out more detail in dark areas and shadows when shooting in bright sunlight or other high-contrast scenes. (In the old days we called it dodging and burning.) The dreaded red-eye effect can be corrected in the camera, without requiring a double flash. Image Advice analyzes shots you've just taken to ensure they're as good as they can be and offers suggestions on how to take better pictures. It's like having an experienced photographer at your side.

The bottom line is that HP's R707 is the camera that will make your mother's day.

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