One way that Herman Miller is trying to do that is by hiring someone like Mr. Anderson. Two months ago, his job didn’t exist. Now, he works with the design team to come up with answers to vexing Internet-age questions like what the home office should look like when the iPad and other tablets and laptops have freed us to work anywhere. It’s still unclear, he said, whether people prefer to use such devices on a work surface or, say, on the couch.

But what is clear from a design standpoint is that, going forward, the company’s furniture can’t layer on technology as an afterthought, said Gretchen Gscheidle, who leads product development at Herman Miller and works closely with Mr. Anderson. She added, “We need to have our products accommodate that technology.”

Many companies agree and are taking that idea literally, judging by all the new furnishings that incorporate Apple devices. Consider the iCon Bed from Hollandia, its headboard equipped with speakers, an amplifier and docking stations for two iPads. Or the Fleur de Noyer chest of drawers by Think Fabricate, which features what the company calls “Fleur de Tech” — a fancy way of saying it has a built-in charging station for electronic devices.

One of the most talked about of these mash-ups is the D’E-light by Flos, a sleek table lamp equipped with a dock for Apple devices. Andrew Shabica, a product manager for the company, said it made sense to take an everyday object like a lamp and combine it with the iPad or iPhone, “which has become a staple of our lives.”

Mr. Starck designed the lamp (he hasn’t abandoned the material world yet), and his involvement ensured not only a cutting-edge product but also one that was stylish too, Mr. Shabica said: “He can take our ideas and add geometry, lines. Rather than simply, ‘It’s a couch with an iPad docking station.’ ”

Some designers, however, are wary of this kind of mash-up, for obvious reasons. After all, the chair with the built-in eight-track player was once cutting edge, too.

“Technology moves at such a rate that it’s going to be redundant in a matter of years,” said Edward Barber, a co-founder of the London design studio Barber Osgerby. “As soon as the charging docks change, suddenly the lamp is redundant.”