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If you truly love your iPod, get ready for the next wave in home decor: furniture with iPod docks, chargers and speakers built right in.
Wake up to the sounds of your favourite playlist in your iBed, and then turn on your iLamp and go to work in your iChair.
Feeling sociable? The iTable will seat six as it plays your party tunes, and guests can check out family photos on your iShelves.
Of course, everyone needs to take bathroom breaks. But that's no reason to stop the music. Just plug that player into the iToilet paper holder and you're good to go.
Lovegrove & Repucci's $14,000 (U.S.) dining room table in the shape of a baby grand piano includes an iPod dock and speakers.
Is this getting a bit iRidiculous?
Maybe, if you count up how much all this would cost. But maybe not, if you think about how attached people have become to their MP3 players.
"People used to put speakers in every room of the house," says Chris Dragon, brand marketing director for audio company Harman/Kardon. "There's something very simple and gratifying and fun about being able to just plop the thing in ... Consumers have the desire to hear their music everywhere."
Mr. Dragon is not just a marketer, he's a devotee. He has four iPods: one each for his car and his wife's car, one for bike rides and one that stays in the house. He hasn't rushed out to buy a bed or a table with a built-in dock and speakers, but he can see the appeal, even for the toilet paper iPod charger: "A lot of people spend a lot of time in that room."
Furniture built for iPods first started showing up in the very high-end market a couple years ago.
On the splurge end of things, New Jersey-based Lovegrove & Repucci offers a $14,000 (U.S.) white dining room table in the shape of a baby grand piano that includes an iPod dock and speakers. Design Mobel, a New Zealand-based company, sells a luxe bed with Bose speakers for about $4,600, which it bills as "the world's most comfortable iPod dock."
But now the trend is trickling into the mainstream. Pottery Barn Teen introduced chairs and loungers equipped with iPod docks and speakers last year. The line was so popular, the company is expanding the concept to its regular furniture - the "Smart Technology" line, including $199 shelves and $99 desk hutches, should be available in Canadian stores this fall. Last month, U.S. retailer Target began selling upholstered headboards for children's beds that feature MP3-compatible docks and speakers for $199.
The trend makes sense for furniture makers, says Stefan Wille, president of Aktrin, a global furniture industry consulting company based in Oakville, Ont. The demand for new furniture is slowing down, he says: "The only way for manufacturers to grow their business is making more fancy, more elaborate furniture."
Furniture makers are leaping at the chance to sex up their brands. It's hard to feel hip while shopping for an end table, but a table that can blast your "Brazil 2007 Supersamba Vacation Mix" is a different story.
But does it make sense for consumers to invest in furniture designed around such a rapidly changing technology? Will iPod beds and tables wind up in the Value Village heap in a few years, just as their eight-track-player-equipped ancestors did a few decades ago?
Quite possibly.
Most people buy furniture intending to keep it for a decade or more, says Jean-François Michaud, president of the Quebec Furniture Manufacturers Association, while they will probably want to change their MP3 players every couple years - and who knows what the next big thing in portable music will be. "I'm not sure it's going to be a big trend," Mr. Michaud says.
On the other hand, it's hard to overestimate fans' brand loyalty to Apple, and in particular iPod, says Patricia Martin, a marketing expert and author of Renaissance Generation. The strength of the iPod furniture phenomenon lies more in identity than in appealing to those who need a practical living room set, she says.
"It is a fascinating phenomenon," Ms. Martin says. The iPod appeals to what she calls "the creative, non-conforming consumer" - which, increasingly, is everyone. It's one product that millions of people can buy and still feel non-conformist, because they personalize it with their favourite music.
Of course, it's no fun being a creative non-conformist if you can't show it off, Ms. Martin says, which may explain why someone would be possessed to buy a $14,000 iPod-compatible dinner table.
"You need people to see that you are using a certain kind of technology," she says.
Ms. Martin speculates that the "equipment fetish" around iPods may tap into the underlying anxiety of people who find the sheer volume of choices offered in this digital age to be intimidating. Containing a powerful gadget in a leather case or a handsome lamp gives the consumer at least the illusion of mastery.
"It's a way of gaining control in a world that's so abundant in information and technology," Ms. Martin says.
iGadgets R Us
With all the MP3-compatible furniture on the market now, it's possible to outfit an entire iHouse with docks, chargers and speakers in every room. Here's what you'll need (all prices U.S.):
Lovegrove & Repucci Concerto Table, a dining room table shaped like a baby grand piano: $14,000
Design Mobel Pause bed: about $4,600
Target Audio Headboard: $199
Pottery Barn Bedford Smart Wall-Mount Shelf: $199
Pottery Barn Teen iChair, in seven faux suede colours: $399
Adesso Architect iLamp: $89
Atech Flash Technology iCarta toilet paper holder: $129.99
