Smooth Yeti

Knäppa a Digital Cardboard Camera by IKEA

IKEA is making quite some buzz lately with their new bold ideas and new product launches. First of, to our great surprise, they entered consumer electronics market and introduced UPPLEVA, their home entertainment solution. Soon after they showed off their latest and most surprising product Knäppa, a cardboard digital camera.

So far 2012 seems to be a good year for IKEA’s creativity and the year is still young. But then the company, that will celebrate its 70th birthday in 2013, starts acting this weird one could start questioning its sanity. A question I thought I would never have about IKEA.

Both of the new products came out as a surprise and both of them made me ask myself “are they for real?” And, apparently, they are! Is IKEA insane? Probably not. While both of the ideas are questionable at first, then you think of it for some time, they make perfect sense, in a way, of course. As with UPPLEVA, everything is hidden behind the needs and wants of the customers.

Knäppa’s simplicity, quirkiness and customizability is desirable, but do you really need one? No, not really. Would you use it if you got one for free? Yes you would, for a while at least. Would you buy it in IKEA for a couple of bucks? Yes! Why not? Just for fun! It’s that simple. Besides, you probably end up buying something you do not really need from IKEA every time you are there.

Created for the launch of IKEA’s PS 2012 collection this August, Knäppa is also a part of “be an inspiration and be inspired” campaign where everyone can upload and share photos of their homes and apartments on IKEA’s website. And, by the way, Knäppa is said to be free for everyone who bought something from the PS collection. How about that?

World’s cheapest digital camera is set to reach IKEA stores pretty soon. Probably even before the launch of PS 2012 collection, which is also worth checking out. The 7th installment of IKEA’s Post Scriptum (PS) is all about sustainability, recycling and environment preservation. Even all the designs are inspired by the 70 years of IKEA’s design history, all trimmed and tweaked and greener than ever. Not bad for the furniture giant where Knäppa fits right in.

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UPPLEVA. TV, Sound and Furniture by IKEA

Then I saw this IKEA ad for the first time I honestly thought it was a joke. A well made spoof of all things IKEA. I laughed, but then I stopped. The idea seemed mad at first, but after a while it made perfect sense. If you want something neat and clean and in one place, UPPLEVA is exactly what you need. TV, Blue-Ray Player, Speakers, Game Consoles and all the rest tucked nicely inside the furniture and out of the view. A good fit for those in need for fast and affordable home entertainment fix. The choice here is simple, you choose the furniture and the size of the screen, and everything else comes as a standard selected by IKEA. If that suits you, of course.

Some may argue that the screens IKEA chose are cheap and of lesser quality than many others in the market. The same might be said about the Blue-Ray player and the speakers. Even more, you can only get  what is available, and that is limited to only few (if any) options. In this case, UPPLEVA is definitely not the solution for someone who knows his gadgets.

On the other hand, while all the big wigs keep talking about the revolution of home entertainment systems and the way they will change how we watch TV, IKEA came up with this. They created a simple, affordable and beautiful solution for all of those, who don’t give a damn about all the technology.

The idea of integrating TV’s and radios into the furniture is definitely not new. It is something we have seen before. IKEA draws their inspiration from the days when all the technologies were big and chunky and the size of a closet. From the days then it made much more sense to make them look like the rest of the furniture and a part of the home. And it looks like this trend is on a way back to our living rooms.

UPPLEVA is just the first step in consumer electronics market for IKEA, but I bet they will introduce much more options like this in the future to come. As for competition, they might also start offering furniture integration possibilities or even create products that can be integrated into IKEA furniture, in a way that Apple accessory manufacturers have been doing since the iPod.

One thing is clear, the strongest point of UPPLEVA is the way it hides all the wires and boxes connected to your TV, and If you are one of the TV attachment hoarders this is a great solution for you. IKEA makes all the wires and clutter disappear behind the drawers and doors not to be seen again and by doing so gives you much more space for other things.

From the 50’s and 60’s inspired TV’s lets go back to the future for a while. Today consumer electronics market is full of possibilities and choices, and some technologies in development are going to introduce even more possibilities (touch, movement, voice control). Wires are disappearing in their own accord and everything is more wireless than ever. But just wait until wireless charging systems will reach mass production. It might also be the end of electric socket, as we know it, the end of wires connecting your devices to the power grid. That means even fewer wires to worry about (Soon after having wires will be the new “vintage” and “old-school”). To think of it we are almost past the need to hide the wires, because we hardly need them. In this case, UPPLEVA is a good showcase of where our technologies are going, what consumers want and how manufacturers can take their products up a notch. And more importantly it makes us think, what do we actually need in our entertainment systems?

First of are the Blue-Ray Players. When all the media is more and more downloadable, streamable and online, who actually needs them? No one. In this case all you need is a hard drive to store your media, but with all the cloud storage solutions and innovations such hardware also seems unnecessary. In a nutshell and to keep things short, all you need today is a Wi-Fi enabled screen, some speakers and a dozen of subscriptions to your favorite Internet media services such as Spotify, Netflix or any other (if you are lucky enough to have them in your area) and you are done (add video game consoles at your own risk or find an online solution). No wires, no clutter.

If you are in the market for your new home entertainment system, there are many roads to travel, but UPPLEVA is a strong option to consider. Moreover, if you go the IKEA way, with one purchase you will have half of your room settled.

Smooth Yeti