back to article Ikea to integrate TV, Blu-ray, sound system into sideboard

Ikea, the Swedish flat-pack furniture giant, is to offer its design-conscious punters consumer electronics equipment, it said today. Heck, if Apple can build a global business on the back of stylish gadgets, why not Ikea, the acme of Scandinavian minimalist chic? Ikea won't simply offer TVs, Blu-ray players, wireless audio …

COMMENTS

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  1. Peter Gordon

    Presumably all the electronics will come in kit form and you'll have to assemble them yourself.

    1. LinkOfHyrule
      Alert

      In which case they must be outsourcing the electronics to Sir Clive Sinclair - Oh great!

    2. Darryl
      Happy

      Your new Ikea box contains an allen key and a soldering iron. And the picture instructions are now 823 pages long

  2. Gomez Adams
    FAIL

    Looks like the PSU capacitor replacement dudes will be rubbing their hands at the extra business headed their way if these heat capturing enclosures catch on.

  3. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Flat-pack AV kit, anyone?

    No, thank you.

    1. Tim Parker

      Re: Flat-pack AV kit, anyone?

      "No, thank you."

      Struth - that'll be a blow to their financials.

  4. TWB

    Great idea

    If they get it right this could be a good thing - I may be a broadcast engineer but I dislike messy cables and clutter - probably in a minority here though....

    1. JEDIDIAH
      Linux

      Re: Great idea

      Any similar TV cabinet will achieve exactly the same thing.

      If you're not worried about sound quality, you could just get yourself a smart tv and mount it on the wall. This is a solution for a problem that doesn't really exist.

      1. Stoneshop
        WTF?

        "This is a solution for a problem that doesn't really exist"

        Well, apparently some of their customers do think otherwise, and in large enough numbers that IKEA, like any business worth its salt, considered offering them a solution for this.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Will avoid, lesson already learned

    Years back I bought ikea furniture for my lounge. A few years after I bought a new TV (this should already be ringing warning bells!) and needed a new TV stand to take it.

    So off I went to ikea, and it was all good. They still sold the same range, and they had a nice TV stand in roughly the right size. Got it home, assembled it, put TV on it, stepped back...

    And it was pink. WTF! My other furniture was a nice warm, orange-ish wood colour, but this was a definite pink. Not just a little off-colour, but a totally different colour, and pink. I'm sorry but I'm just not having a pink TV stand.

    Took it back, and was told that the colour of everything varies depending on the batch, so if you buy something a year later there's a fair chance it'll be pink. You have a choice of having a pink piece of furniture in your room, or replacing the whole lot. Throw in all your AV kit because it's built-in and that could get very expensive very fast.

    1. Danny 14

      Re: Will avoid, lesson already learned

      Well wood is a natural product and does change colour depending on the source. This is hardly ikea's fault is it.

      1. Mike Brown

        Re: Will avoid, lesson already learned

        did you not notice when you were biulding it? i know ikea stuff is so easy you can put it together with your eyes closed, but your not really ment to.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Will avoid, lesson already learned

          No, there wasn't much space in the room, and there was lots of space in the dining room. And it was on wheels so it was easy to drag through.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Will avoid, lesson already learned

        Wood varies, yes. What ikea sells (or 95% of it at any rate) isn't wood - it's chipboard with a plasticy coating, printed with a wood pattern. If it was wood I could understand, but surely they can buy the same colour paint each year?

        1. bluesxman
          FAIL

          Re: Will avoid, lesson already learned

          If you buy the cheapest of the cheap, maybe. But if you spend a little more you'll find the things like look like wood are chipboard with a veneer coating, with a naturally occurring wood pattern.

    2. Elmer Phud

      Re: Will avoid, lesson already learned

      Had this once with a dining table leaf - it was a different finish to the other one.

      Took it back , replaced, went home - right one but damged.

      Took it back -replaced, opened there and then, wrong finish -- but noticed that the packing was slightly different between the two finishes.

      Chat wth manager and we went and checked - yup, we could tell which finish by which factory had packed them.

      Sorted - actually good service as they were happy to go beyond "It fits" or "it's the right code" or "replace or refund". It helped a lot that I wasn't one of the screaming complainants who had done stupid things and were blaming it all on the returns staff . Been on that side if it, symapthy helps.

      To be honest - I'd prefer Ikea for someting like that than one of these cheapish beds with a flat screen on a lift.

  6. Malcolm 2
    Pint

    My wife will love it

    Like many good ideas, a blindingly obvious way to go if done well. No need to buy an expensive piece of furniture just to cut holes in to accomodate all of those annoying cables. A lot will depend on the quality of the electronics.

  7. Whitter
    Unhappy

    It's great to see such worthwhile innovation comming out of this wee gem a of a charity.

    No wonder nobody taxes them.

    http://www.economist.com/node/6919139

  8. Tkane

    new version of gramaphone sideboard

    Is this not just a new version of the old gramaphone sideboards our parents used to have

    complete with the boxes to store the vinyl in ?

    no new ideas just recycled ones

    1. chr0m4t1c

      Re: new version of gramaphone sideboard

      Yep, and it'll have the same problems.

      If you decide you want a new look for the room in three or four years time you don't just get rid of the old TV stand, you get rid of all of your equipment too.

      Or if the TV breaks down in a few years you have to carry the whole unit to the repair shop (or replace all of your kit).

  9. Tkane

    new version of gramaphone sideboard

    is this just a new version of the old gramaphone sideboards our parents used to have with shelves for the vinyl

    1. Bakunin
      Coat

      Re: new version of gramaphone sideboard

      "no new ideas just recycled ones"

      Was that double post a self referential joke?

      Mines the one with the coat in the pocket.

  10. Jon Massey
    FAIL

    PAP?

    yeah, that's about right...

  11. Colin Wilson 2

    It's called a Radiogram

    Funny how things stay the same. My Gran had a Radiogram - or Stereogram as it was very posh. Walnut veneer'ed cabinet with a Hi-Fi inside. Made by Dynatron I seem to remember.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      WTF?

      Re: It's called a Radiogram

      Damn. You beat me to it.

      There's a telly in the mix...........a Televisiogram? Tell you what, let's just add a webcam and a Skype connection and call it an Interrossiter......

      1. bowdie
        Joke

        Re: It's called a Radiogram

        ARE YOU BOYS COOKING UP THERE?

        no

        ARE YOU BOYS ASSEMBLING AN INTERROSSITER?

        NO!

      2. LinkOfHyrule
        Paris Hilton

        Re: It's called a Radiogram / .....a Televisiogram?

        Personally, my favourite is the stripogram.

  12. Swedish Chef

    Seems like a rather nice idea, but...

    ...what do I do a couple years down the line when I want a bigger TV or the Blu-ray player dies?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: what do I do a couple years down the line

      It's from Ikea. You sweep up the remaining bits and sprinkle them on the garden as compost.

  13. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Hmmm, I'd rather have Korean or Japanese equipment built in! Nice enough idea, but would prefer cabinets with integrated VESA pillars, incorporating a cable conduit.

    It's going to be a poor (wo)man's Bang and Olufsen, but at least B&O's panels are made by Phillips.

    IKEA are alright... 15 quid gets you a cabinet thing on wheels that accommodates hi-fi separates perfectly : D

    1. TeeCee Gold badge

      "...but at least B&O's panels are made by Phillips."

      I reckon Ikea's stuff is also made by Philips. They always used to have Philips' kit dotted around their showrooms. These days it looks like the same stuff with Ikea badging stuck on it.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    stick to the basics

    ikea you make honest basic furniture, but his is trying way too hard.

    And the TV market? not even sony can make money out of it!

  15. bluesxman
    WTF?

    Title as icon

    What exactly makes them think I want to take my (fairly) slim and (reasonably) moveable plasma TV and replace it with a fucking sideboard?

  16. Michael Strorm Silver badge

    Does it have a radio as well?

    Someone ought to tell the cameraman he's been using daylight bulbs with tungsten film... Seriously, I know that Hollywood is in love with that overdone turquoise look, but *that* is just ridiculous.

    As for the whole sideboard concept- yeah, it's a bit retro, but not in a way I think has any cachet at the minute. It just looks like a quaint relic from some middle class home of the 60s. And is the integration so important that it's worth going with some unknown noname brand?

  17. Some Beggar
    Meh

    Ikea's business model works (or worked) really well because some time in the 1980s people decided that furniture was a consumable: buy cheap and replace often. I suspect that model might be breaking with people moving back to the prudent grandmother model of buying decent stuff less often and looking after it. So it makes some sort of sense to integrate consumer electronics because they still have a pretty fast replacement cycle.

    The idea of replacing a sideboard just because I want to upgrade my telly brings me out in a cold working class miser sweat.

  18. Andus McCoatover
    Windows

    Only an hours drive to the nearest Swedish IKEA...

    Think I'll check it out, but IKEA always reminds me of...

    http://funnypicturesplus.com/ikea-job-interview-please-have-a-seat.html

  19. Toastan Buttar
    Childcatcher

    Radiogram

    You wouldn't believe how much I want a radiogram. That rounded, wooden sound? Oh yeah.

    Kids theses days with their MP3s on top-endy mobies. I want BASS goddamit!

    1. Some Beggar

      Re: Radiogram

      I've got an old 78 player in a cherry cabinet with louvre doors for the volume. It even has wooden needles that you can re-sharpen with a natty little guillotine.

      You don't get a more wooden sound than that. Unless you can actually press platters out of ebony.

      Oh man ... can you press platters out of ebony? I'd totally out-hipster everybody if I had wooden records.

  20. Christian Berger

    Hmm, mass produced AV equipment...

    Have you ever looked at Ikeahacks? Now just imagine that with their AV equipment... :)

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