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How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

bbc.com

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Re: How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

#61

Post by Kenji »

>I’m Glenn Fiedler and I’ve been a game developer for the last 15 years.

If he is in the scene for so long, he should know about the timing problems in browsers: The JavaScript VM can schedule your game any time it likes and it's pretty much impossible to get consistent framerates across all browsers. As someone who has developed a variety of JavaScript games - I will not do it again until we get more powerful and accurate timers.

There are still many obstacles for good JavaScript games.

Re: How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

#62

Post by rhizome »

kriro wrote: post #59

Still looking for a board game friendly bookshelf from one of the major chains. Depth is the problem, need roughly 30cm of usable depth. I'm currently using IVAR but it's more of a temporary solution. I own about 4 Billy for books they are decent but not great. One thing in their favor is that you can easily add another one. I'd also like it if IKEA would report the usable depth of the shelves in addition to the tota…

As a record collector, I feel your pain. For depth I'd look at the Galant shelves. Even the shallower upper units are 40cm deep, and it's wide enough for games in the way that Expedit wasn't.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S59184629/

Re: How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

#63

Post by onion2k »

kriro wrote: post #59

Still looking for a board game friendly bookshelf from one of the major chains. Depth is the problem, need roughly 30cm of usable depth. I'm currently using IVAR but it's more of a temporary solution. I own about 4 Billy for books they are decent but not great. One thing in their favor is that you can easily add another one. I'd also like it if IKEA would report the usable depth of the shelves in addition to the tota…

Every branch of IKEA is littered with tape measures, and every product they sell is on display somewhere, so you can check practically every dimension of their products. They encourage customers to be hands on with the furniture. That's one of the most brilliant bits of their design thinking when it comes to their stores. I've never seen it anywhere else.

Re: How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

#64

Post by onion2k »

Kenji wrote: post #61

>I’m Glenn Fiedler and I’ve been a game developer for the last 15 years. If he is in the scene for so long, he should know about the timing problems in browsers: The JavaScript VM can schedule your game any time it likes and it's pretty much impossible to get consistent framerates across all browsers. As someone who has developed a variety of JavaScript games - I will not do it again until we get more powerful and ac…

To be fair to browsers, it's impossible to get consistent frame rates on anything. That's why games rely on the delta between frames instead of constant values.

Re: How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

#65

Post by vacri »

michaelvoz wrote: post #2

I dislike IKEA furniture - It never seems to go well, and always in a different, hard-to-plan-for kind of way. Either the bed frame slats will crack at an odd place, or the bookshelf will bend under the weight of too many books, or perhaps a layer of plastic-ish(?) faux-wood will peel off revealing the flimsy glue pressed wood-ish material inside. I understand the appeal of well designed, flatpacked, self assembled f…

> I understand the appeal of well designed, flatpacked, self assembled furniture - but why does the quality have to be so terrible?

Ikea stuff doesn't sell because it's flatpacked and self-assembled. It sells because it's really cheap. Flatpacking and self-assembly are different ways of cutting down on costs.

Re: How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

#66

Post by johansch »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #4

Interesting article, mostly it's about the processes behind the manufacture that allow them to hit their particular price/quality point. One item that jumped out me: "Look at Gyllensvaans Mobler: compared to the 1980s, it is making 37 times as many bookcases, yet its number of employees has only doubled. Of course, that is thanks to all those German and Japanese robots."

A bunch of photos showing the manufacturing process:

http://www.gyllensvaan.se/galleri.htm

(I imagine Google Translate would work well on these pages.)

Re: How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

#68

Post by Aloha »

DashRattlesnake wrote: post #44
unethical_ban wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had exactly the opposite experience as yours. You describe every flat pack furniture brand except Ikea. The only thing Ikea doesn't do superbly (for the price) is padded furniture. Their chairs and couches are terrible, in my opinion. Their cabinets, though? Their desks? Great look, and reliable for years. I am proud of my Billy bookshelf and the books on it in the living room.

I think you're both a little bit correct. Ikea probably sells the best quality flat-pack furniture out there, but I think it's pretty fair to expect their stuff to fail in some way within 5 years of normal use. Keep in mind the failure may or may not be catastrophic, and the item may still be usable for some time. They're definitely a good value, but only if you're OK with eventually needing to buy replacements. Some…

I consider the Lack tables to have a functional service life of two years - if its lightly used, much longer - but under daily use, just buy a new one every two years - even with that - after 10 years, money wise I'm still ahead of more durable furniture.

Re: How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

#69

Post by henrikschroder »

hackuser wrote: post #14
huac wrote: post #3

> Ingvar Kamprad "is said to fly economy and drive an old Volvo. This frugality may help to explain why he is the world's eighth-richest man - although the four decades he spent living in Switzerland to avoid Swedish taxes may also have something to do with it."

That struck me too: Are there leading modern entrepreneurs who are as non-materialistic? I recall hearing of several in prior generations. (Also, sometimes those stories are merely marketing, and they have a personal chef and private jet too.)

In the case of Kamprad, it is definitely merely marketing. He hates paying taxes, and used the same passion for optimizing furniture to optimize his company structure. IKEA is one of the most complicated legal tax-evasion structures around. It is believed that a few percent of the worldwide revenue - not profits! - are going straight into Ingvar's pockets, tax-free. That's quite a feat.

Re: How Ikea's Billy bookcase took over the world

#70

Post by pif »

I don't like buying IKEA furniture for two reasons:

1 - With a handful of exceptions, IKEA furniture looks like... IKEA furniture! It reminds Henry Ford and his "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black."

2 - Most important, while I appreciate its hack-ability, it's important for me to get quickly an idea of the budget involved. I understand that there's no standard IKEA wardrobe, because you can assemble it as you like, but when I see an exposed example I'd like to know the price of the whole thing as it is. If I don't know how much it will cost, more or less, I can't decide whether to buy there or elsewhere, thus I'm not ready to dive into the detailed calculations of N shelves and X hooks.

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