Pottery Barn's Smart Technology Furniture

Any store you visit right now, from Walmart to Pottery Barn, is stocked with colorful back to school furniture. Shopping magazines are covered with fun techie stuff , like iPod alarm clock radios, computer desks, surge protectors, printers, and all the other essentials students will be needing next month when they head back to school. However, the biggest trend I continue to see this year is speakers embedded into furniture and book bags. It's obviously the retailer's way of "iPodifying" their products to attract kids, but are parents buying into it?

Pottery Barn Teen, for example, has what they call The Smart Dorm section filled with tech-friendly essentials for wired teens. A "Smart Technology" section leads us to an array of furniture equipped with three-inch speakers so kids can listen to their MP3 players while they study—don't they use headphones anymore? I'm sure kids will want them, but I doubt parents will be shelling out that kind of money to buy more things that are only going to distract kids from getting their homework done.

Out of curiosity, I headed over to Pottery Barn to see what they've done to "keep up with modern life," and all I found was more furniture with speakers, except this time they've added bonus charging stations. Big deal. I think it's cute, but I'm ready to see some real advancements here. As expected, retailers will continue to half-step their way towards integrating true smart technology into their products, but I guess any little bit helps.