NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Retailers primed their stores for the lucrative back-to-school season, pulling out all the stops to get the attention of anxious parents and students before the first semester dawns.

With total enrollment in public schools near 50 million and undergraduate enrollment approaching 15 million, this is a buying season that retailers can't afford not to give their best effort.

And the big-ticket items -- electronics -- were especially on the minds of students, parents and retailers, now regarded as crucial tools for students' back-to-school productivity and entertainment.

In a study by Best Buy of the items incoming college freshmen considered essential, students ranked cell phones (83 percent) and laptop computers (66 percent) as nearly as crucial as traditional school supplies like notepads, calculators and pencils (88 percent).

"Back-to-school tends to be a very different buying season than others -- much more focused on needs than wants," said Steve Baker of the NPD Group. "Productivity products are the big sellers because the money is still coming from Mom and Dad."

And although parents' and students' priorities can differ -- especially in regards to entertainment spending -- some tools can satisfy both camps.

"More and more students tell us they can't live without their laptop computers," said Tracey Malone, a Best Buy store manager, in a statement.

Priorities in laptops include Ethernet networking cards and Wi-Fi (wireless) capabilities, as schools transition toward more student-teacher communication over the Internet, and large hard drives to accommodate ever-burgeoning music and photo collections.

"We've seen a lot of interest -- and a lot of questions -- from parents and students looking for either a laptop or desktop depending on their needs," said Amanda Tate of Circuit City. "And related accessories are doing well, like blank CDs and flash memory drives."

Pricing is a major concern, with stores offered deeply discounted introductory laptops, such as Apple's iBook and HP's Special Edition, and buyers lapping them up.

Parents are also looking to make sure their students' computers are as secure as possible. Seventeen percent of parents in the Best Buy study expressed concern about their students' safety online, and 54 percent were concerned about theft of electronics at school.

Retailers have seen growing awareness of products dedicated to preventing viruses and Internet intrusions, such as Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Internet Security 2005.

Also gaining traction are combination devices such as combination printer/scanner/copiers like Canon's PIXMA MP130 and HP's OfficeJet 5510.

"The amount of stuff a typical student needs has grown exponentially, while the size of the [dorm] room has not," said Malone.

Students are looking for a lot of functionality in a small package, and manufacturers are willing to oblige when they can.

The next major device that retailers are anticipating -- not quite ready for this back-to-school season -- is the combination cell phone/MP3 player/camera.

"It's possible today to get music on your phone, just difficult," said Adam Zawel of the Yankee Group. "Towards the end of the year, you'll see phones that are better-designed for the music experience."

He predicted that it would be the under-18 audience that would popularize the combination phones, because the younger demographic frequently adopts new features first.

For now, one big selling point for phones -- at least for parents -- is the ability to pick out which features their kids will have.

The Firefly cell phone is targeted to pre-teens and offers easy speed dial for "Mom, Dad, and 911" -- plus a limited phone book of 20 numbers, which is protected by a passcode in case the phone is lost.

Also, many phones aimed at teenagers and younger kids are reassuring parents with limited calling plans, so as to avoid unexpected spending damage.

Cell phone providers are counting on outfits like Firefly, a new breed of company that rents network space from the main cellular service providers like Sprint and offers a unique services marketed to a niche audience.

Zawel cites Disney, Firefly and Enfora as companies that are doing a compelling job of marketing phones to younger consumers.

In MP3 players, the iPod continues its uncontested reign -- only two competitors' products ranked in Amazon.com's 15 top-selling players -- the rest were from Apple.

But the National Retail Federation expected that consumer electronics spending would not reach the sky-high sales levels of 2004: they expect $2.06 billion in sales versus $3.09 billion last year.

"It is understandable that, after several years of strong gains and record-breaking sales, demand may cool slightly for electronics merchandise this year," said Tracy Mullin, NRF President and CEO, in a statement. "The real windfall for electronics retailers will likely be from college students, who are continuing to spend more money on computers, MP3 players and cell phones."

And retailers, aware of this possibility, are making every effort to secure buyers' attention and dollars as soon as they can.

"Another thing about back-to-school is that the marketing push from retailers is getting earlier and earlier," said Baker. "It used to start beginning of August, but now we're seeing it as early as mid-July."

Baker pointed out July circular advertisements in newspapers touting bargain laptops, graphic calculators and iPod minis.

The NRF's study on back-to-school spending found that most consumers were heading to discount stores for purchases (77 percent), followed by department stores (39 percent), office supplies stores (29 percent) and specialty stores (18 percent).

13 percent of consumers indicated that they would conduct some shopping online.

In Amazon.com electronics sales for the second week in August, the top sellers were still predominantly entertainment-related, but Microsoft Office Student Edition (#5), Norton AntiVirus 2005 (#24) and the Texas Instruments TI-89 Graphing Calculator (#46) were obvious signs of back-to-school's influence.

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