Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ALREADY THE ONE-STOP shop for smart and compact home furnishing, IKEA is venturing into the world of technology — with the IKEA TV.
The new furniture range, named UPPLEVA, the Swedish word for experience, integrates an LED TV, a sound system with wireless bass speakers, an internet connection and CD, DVD and Blu-ray players — all in one self-assembly piece.
Although the TV and the other electronics are made by Chinese manufacturer TCL, IKEA has built everything around them, hiding the masses of cables that can be a nuisance and make a living room look shabby.
To further simplify things, IKEA and TCL have combined all the controls into a single remote. The furniture surface is especially designed to allow the remote’s signals through, so the devices can remain hidden from view.
The TV screens are available in four different sizes, from 24 inches to 46 inches, and in a range of colours including gray, black and blue. Users are also able to plug in their iPods or other MP3 music players.
Like most IKEA furniture, the UPPLEVA is purchased in a flat-pack and is ready for assembly at home for those handy with screwdrivers and other tools.
The furniture comes in three designs and will be sold first in Sweden, France, Poland, Germany and Italy in June, with a few more markets due to launch in the second half of the year. By the first half of next year, it will be available worldwide, with the cheapest costing about 6,500 Swedish kronor (€730).
To test market appetite for its latest innovation, IKEA had a survey conducted by pollster YouGov. The poll showed that three out of four people want less visible cables in their living rooms and 50 per cent wanted to reduce the amount of electronics lying about.
The study, done in five countries with more than 5,200 respondents between 29 February and 15 March this year, also showed that 60 per cent of the people asked have between three to four remote controls at home.
“We’ve realised that people are watching more TV and are using electronics in their living rooms more and more,” IKEA spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said. “We came up with this because we found that people want to get rid of the cables and they don’t want those mountains of remote controls either.”
Martin Rask, a 38-year old from Stockholm, said the all-in-one concept sounded interesting but wondered how it could keep up with new technologies.
“The furniture is a tempting idea — I’m wrestling with a bundle of cables at home myself at the moment — but the problem is that so many new things are released all the time,” he said. “I’ve had three different Internet suppliers in the past year for example, and imagine if you had an old VHS player built into your furniture that no one is watching.”
Magnusson at IKEA said that although the electronic devices are physically attached to the furniture, there is plenty of room for customers to put in IKEA-designed add-ons.
IKEA employs more than 130,000 people and has 280 stores in 25 countries. Last year it drew 655 million customers.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Oh look, a dig at the recession in relation to an article with no relevance to it. How original.
Exactly! an article about tv’s…..lets all moan at the ba$#@rd politicians that can afford one!
Great until the tv breaks down. Try getting that puppy out if everything is built around it.
It would be easy get it out,
You do know that you tend to build Ikea furniture and as such you can likely easily remove the TV if required, I’m sure Ikea have thought of it.
Great news for those outside the recession like top paid public servants and politicians. The rest of us will make do with our portable tv’s illegally held with no tv licence.
I don’t know, I see many a non “op paid public servants or politicians” who while they may say they are broke always tend to have the most Sky channels and biggest TV they can fit into their sitting room.
Your talking nonsense imho, also Ikea isn’t expensive
Funnily enough Barry when I got sky in it was actually a big saving for me as it allowed me to watch my footie at home rather than shelling out once or twice a week on the boozer to watch the games. Sadly things have got tighter again an I’m considering having to get rid of it, using the dish for uk freesat and using dodgy crap quality streams for the game.
@Joseph Another option is to get a European satellite dish. A mate of mine is married to a German girl and I watched the Liverpool and Eveton FA cup semi final at his place on a German station. A one off payment of about 150 notes covered it. And the German channels show all the premiership goals live as they happen on Saturdays too. Great stuff, if you can get over the fact that you won’t have a clue what the commentary team are talking about.
@Chris: You tool :)
@aidan sounds like a great idea, sadly I’m in an flat with a shared dish and as sky installed it it’ll be pointing at Astra so I’d probably be crackered as far as that’s concerned. If you have a house and can put up your own dish tho sounds a great idea, mute it and get 5 live on for the commentary!!
fooking hell €700, they’ll be waiting longer than next year
“reddit” already.
Oh For the love of humans Noooooooooooo.
have your say