Teching Out Back-to-School

If you go to college, and don’t have an Xbox or iPod, do you still exist? The way the back-to-school market looks to be performing, the pressure for teens to ramp up their technology portfolios before hitting school looks to be at a pretty strong high.

We know that Steve Jobs wants us all to buy new iPods every year. Now we’re hearing Wal-Mart proclaim, "College Happens. Tech It Out." And Best Buy includes TVs, grills and large external hard drives on its "college essentials" list. Sounds like a fun school year. But how are consumers responding?

Well, some projections from yesterdays Washington Post article (reg. required) on the matter:

“NPD Group estimated that 36 percent of shoppers planned to buy electronics this back-to-school season, compared with 25 percent last year. The National Retail Federation predicted total tech spending would reach $3.82 billion in the period, up from $2.06 billion last year.”

We’ll see in a little while how the actual results turn out, but I think it’s fair to say the pressure is on like never before, and teens and parents are anteing up.

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