More and more people who are hearing impaired: Cooler hearing aids should also appeal to young customers

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Unlike myopia, hearing loss is still an embarrassment for many people, especially young people. Quite a few are affected by this. It’s actually quite normal to have hearing problems, and not just for older people.

According to experts, one of the reasons for this is the constant use of headphones. Many children, teenagers and young adults listen to music for several hours every day at volumes that significantly exceed recommended limits, according to recent studies from the US.

For example, Apple’s Air Pod headphones have become so common among middle-aged people that it’s completely normal for this generation to “always wear a plug in their ear,” as Daniel Buchta explains. He works as a financial analyst at the Zürcher Kantonalbank and knows the hearing aids and headphones market like the back of his hand. And he thinks: Boys’ headphone habits could now help a new generation of hearing aids make a breakthrough.

AirPods 2 Pro helps with hearing

Because this market is currently changing a lot, Buchta says in an interview with the AWP news agency. The pioneer is new regulations in the world’s most important market, the US. Providers there have recently been allowed to sell so-called over-the-counter hearing aids, or OTC products for short. These are sold without any professional support, which often means no complex device setup at the hearing care professional is required.

Apple itself, the manufacturer of the Air Pods so popular among millennials, is not yet active on the OTC market. Nevertheless, Apple’s latest “in-ear” headphones can be used at least partially as hearing aids when paired with an iPhone. Because the “AirPods 2 Pro” have a feature called “Listen Live” as well as call amplification. The latter ensures that you can better understand speakers who are a few meters away.

And from these functions, the step to a new type of OTC hearing aid is not far away, according to experts. “Who knows, Apple may soon launch an OTC hearing aid,” speculates Daniel Buchta. A device like this could be especially popular among younger people with hearing loss, he says.

Setting up devices yourself is overwhelming

But that is still in the future. And the market share of the already launched OTC hearing aids is only about 2 percent in the U.S., Buchta says. “One of the reasons is probably that older people who use traditional hearing aids tend to avoid these new products,” he explains. The fact that you have to adjust these yourself to some extent is often overwhelming.

However, the market share of OTC devices could suddenly skyrocket as hearing loss increases among today’s 40-year-olds who are familiar with Air Pods and similar headphones, Buchta says. And a large company from Switzerland could also benefit from this: the company Sonova from Stäfa in Zurich. It is best known for its Phonak hearing aids. The company also recently bought Sennheiser’s headphone division.

Sonova has now launched its first OTC hearing aid under this “cooler” brand. The claim seems clear: this is not a classic Phonak hearing aid for the older generation, but rather a trendy lifestyle product.

Sony is also entering the market

But the launch of the new device called All-Day Clear was also rather cautious at Sennheiser, company boss Arnd Kaldowski told the media. But what is not yet is yet to come. That’s exactly why industry expert Buchta still thinks Sonova’s move to launch such a device is sensible.

The acquisition of the Sennheiser brand by the Swiss top hearing aid company also makes strategic sense. Sennheiser is a well-known headphone brand with a good reputation in both Europe and Asia. “And Sonova can now wisely use this brand to sell OTC hearing aids,” says Buchta.

Sonova is not the only provider entering this new market. The Japanese electronics giant Sony now also has promising products on the market, says Buchta. The American company Bose and the headphone manufacturer Jabra are also active on the market. The latter, for example, with the Jabra Enhance Plus, which can hardly be distinguished from wireless headphones with the naked eye.

However, it may be a little harder to actually make money with them compared to traditional hearing aids, at least when it comes to profitability. “The competition in the consumer electronics sector is much greater than for traditional hearing aids,” Buchta explains.

This market, in turn, would only be shared by a few larger players. In addition to Sonova, these include Demant, WS Audiology and the GN Group from Denmark. WS Audiology also works with Sony in the OTC sector, while GN is behind the Jabra headphones. The two companies are therefore competitors of the Swiss Sonova in all areas: from headphones to OTC hearing aids to classic hearing aids.

(SDA)

Source: Blick