In the 1990s, thirty-something fans of Sex and the City turned the Rampant Rabbit into the bestselling sex toy of all time. Now forty-something and counting, those women are beginning to question why their sex toys have not grown up with them. The Sex and the City generation are married now, most of them have kids, and they find themselves either bored, or embarrassed by brightly coloured jelly, bunny ears, and vibrating 10in penises.

To their rescue comes Dutch electronics giant Philips, who are about to launch “Intimate Massagers”, a range of ergonomically designed, non-penetrative vibrating massagers that will be sold by Selfridges, Boots and Amazon.co.uk at prices starting from £79.99. The company brings welcome experience, investment and technical expertise to an industry stuck in a “naughty novelty” rut and for the discerning consumer, the arrival of a sex toy that is more John Lewis than Ann Summers will be greeted with a sigh of relief.

Certainly, the two years of research that Philips carried out before going into production is evident in the form, if not the function, of the products. Its in-house team discovered that although 42 per cent of British couples already use marital aids, a further 35 per cent would be willing to experiment if the industry wasn't so “smutty and embarrassing”. With a potential £60 million market, discretion has been a key part of the brief and the company has certainly succeeded.

I tried out the Dual Intimate Massage kit, a his n' hers set of pebble-shaped massagers presented in a circular purple box which doubles as a recharging unit. The innocuous exterior is smart, though a lock on the outer box would be smarter, and the two contoured massagers are designed to rest in the palm of our hand keeping fingers free for touch. The controls are simple to use and there is a travel lock setting to avoid potential embarrassment when going through customs. Unlike the majority of vibrators, the Intimate massager is non-penetrative which makes it less threatening to men. It's not a new idea. Ten years ago two British companies, Myla (under Charlotte Semmler) and Emotional Bliss (with Julia Cole) produced ranges of well-designed, non-penetrative clitoral massagers, but they didn't have the kind of industrial development budgets that Philips can provide.

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BACKGROUND

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• Should my boyfriend get circumcised?

• I'm embarrassed to have sex when I'm sober

• Do I need protection during oral sex?

• Does size matter?

Though sex toys might seem like an unorthodox diversification for a company best known for the Ladyshave, competitors Hitachi have enjoyed the “off label” success of their electric massager The Magic Wand since back in the Seventies when legendary sex expert Betty Dodson discovered that 6,000 revs per minute relieved more than muscle tension. Very few products have ever been able to compete with the Magic Wand and the Dual Intimate Massager isn't one of them, but what this elegant device lacks in strength, it makes up for in subtlety. It's not often you find your husband lying on the bed aiming the TV remote control at a sex toy. He thought it was the Freeview box!

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