Sales of electronics booming

SAN CARLOS, Calif. — For back-to-school shoppers, a new alphabet reigns, and it starts with E for electronics.

With camera cell phones and the Apple iPod music player topping student wish lists, some of the hottest gadgets have little to do with pen or paper, much less studying.

Altogether, electronics are expected to account for about a quarter of the estimated $40 billion that U.S. parents and students will spend on back-to-school items this season, according to the National Retail Federation. That is more than textbooks, clothing, shoes and any other category.

Just consider Claudine Bula Marasigan, a junior at the University of San Francisco. In the past three weeks, she spent about $4,000 on electronics, including $760 for a digital camera and printer, $1,600 on a new computer, and hundreds more on an external hard drive, DVD player, small portable TV and other gear — making the $630 she spent on textbooks look like a bargain.

And the 25-year-old wasn't even done — she returned last week with her parents to the Best Buy store in San Carlos to get printer cartridges, a surge protector and a stylish polka dot-patterned wrist rest for her computer keyboard.

"It's really expensive to send a child to school nowadays," said her father, Bill Marasigan, shaking his head under the retailer's bright lights.

Portable laptop computers are increasingly becoming a student staple, especially for the college-bound. Sales this season are up about 30 percent from last year, according to the NPD Group market research firm.

Any models with built-in Wi-Fi are grabbing sales, analysts say, but some of the most popular include the Dell Inspiron 700M, the Apple iBook, and the Averatec C3500 Convertible, which combines a laptop and tablet PC with a display that swivels and folds down so notes can be scribbled directly onto the screen like an old-fashioned notepad.

More than anything, students are clamoring for things that will enhance their lifestyle, if not their grades.

MP3 music players edged out cell phones to lead the list of items students wanted before returning to school on a recent online survey of 300 junior high and high school students by research firm InsightExpress.

The portable player everyone seems to want is Apple Computer Inc.'s top-selling iPod. Retailers say they cannot keep enough in stock to meet demand.