Ikea Venturing Into Electronics Business

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- If you don't mind building it yourself, Ikea can save you big bucks on furniture.

And now, the Swedish company is venturing into the electronic business.

According to Extreme Tech, Ikea is planning a new line of entertainment centers with HD TVs and Blu-Ray players built in.

It's launching a line of integrated connected televisions, sound systems and CD/DVD/Blu-Ray players, ridding your home of all those tangled cords. It comes with one remote control for all in a neat cabinet.

The new IKEA multimedia systems will only be available in European cities this June. The units will be available in the U.S. at IKEA stores starting next April.

IKEA and its Chinese electronics manufacturer partner are banking on major sales stateside.

Interior Design students in Suzanne Sekula's furniture history class at the Art Institute took a break to tell KDKA-TV what they think of IKEA'S new venture.

"Simplistic, it's clean – that's probably the best thing – especially if you're a college student. It's cheap," says Tye Silverthorn.

Many of the students see the spare design as a retro look, like Chelsea Alberti.

"It's versatile. I can see it in a single man's bachelor pad or a family home with children," she said. "It fits all different situations."

The base price for the Uppleva units is $960 and goes up from there. Andrew McClelland isn't sure that's value for dollar.

"There's a lot of other products out on the market that actually hide cords and is actually cheaper than this product is," he said.

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