January 15, 2006
An ear for tech
Many Americans wouldn't be caught dead wearing a hearing aid, even if they've lost enough hearing to need one. So hearing-aid suppliers such as Eden Prairie-based Starkey Laboratories are trying to broaden their appeal with audiological products for all ages. Think custom-molded earpieces for teenage iPod junkies along with Bluetooth cell-phone headsets for their car-commuting moms and dads, to name a few.
The idea, according to Starkey, is to get consumers more comfortable with advanced in-the-ear technologies, and to remove the stigma associated with hearing aids, so they'll be likelier to embrace the audio-assistance devices when the time is right.
Such a shift would come none too soon, Starkey admitted.
Hearing aids are a big global market — the company estimates it's on the order of $1.6 billion in sales a year, with 7 million individual hearing aids sold — but one seeing low-single-digit growth. Only about one in 10 people who would see their lives vastly improved with a hearing aid actually use one, said Starkey President Jerry Ruzicka.
So while hearing aids are certain to remain Starkey's bread and butter — the privately held company claims a 25 percent U.S. hearing-aid market share and a 14 percent global share — a broader range of audiological products will figure prominently in the firm's marketing this year.
One gizmo, the Eli, consists of a hearing-aid plug-in module that adds Bluetooth wireless-networking capabilities. This is important, Starkey said, because it allows direct interaction with almost any Bluetooth-equipped cell phone.
It's just the thing to make a hearing aid hipper, not to mention more useful.
If the mildly hearing-impaired can't be coaxed into donning an Eli-augmented hearing aid, Starkey's SoundPort device could be the next best thing. The in-the-ear Bluetooth headset not only interacts with
Bluetooth cell phones but adds a bit of hearing-aid-like audio augmentation, according to the firm.
The Bluetooth earpiece makes use of a key Starkey technology — a hard-plastic earpiece that will fit a particular user's ear canal for better comfort.
Starkey has adapted this procedure for other products, such as hearing aids and MP3 earpieces that connect to standard iPod earbuds, along with the firm's line of much-pricier all-in-one earphones.
Starkey's foray into consumer electronics is so new that it is just beginning to develop its marketing strategy, said David Olson, director of the company's telecommunications-products division. The firm's Web site doesn't even mention the iPod add-ons yet.
But Olson anticipates targeting so-called "early adopters," largely by electronic means, along with the aggressive use of traditional print advertising.
Starkey will face plenty of competition. Custom-fitted earpieces now available range from a $10 do-it-yourself PodFitKit for use with iPod earbuds to pro-quality Ultimate Ears earbuds costing up to $900.
Molded earbuds typically must be bought from audiologists, which perform initial fittings by injecting silicon into customers' ear canals to create molds. It's largely in this setting that Starkey jostles with its rivals for slices of the so-called "recreational audiology" market.
Colorado-based Westone Laboratories, for instance, has become a mighty competitor after about five decades in the audiological-accessory market. It says it created sets of custom-fitted earpieces for Sony's pioneering Walkman cassette players, with all their iPod-like cachet, way back in the mid-1980s.
It has since diversified into a dizzying variety of markets, ranging from hearing-aid customization — it doesn't sell its own hearing aids but offers services to hearing-aid providers — to earpieces for swimmers, joggers, motorcyclists, military pilots and others.
Westone largely emphasizes earbuds for professional musicians — these merit a flashy Westone Music Products Web site of their own — but has lately seen the mainstream "iPod community take hold of this product," according to product-development manager Karl Cartwright.
Westone's network of 8,000 affiliated audiology clinics includes the Hearing Center and Store at the Park Nicollet medical clinic in St. Louis Park. In a press release, the clinic recently trumpeted its Westone-outsourced MP3 earbuds "so that music aficionados can get the rock-star fit they deserve."
But the iPod crowd remains a niche market, said Holly Dodds, the clinic's hearing-services manager.
In addition to molded-plastic earpieces, Westone sells "universal" earpieces. These have easy-to-replace foam tips that must be squished before being inserted in the ear canal, where they re-expand to largely block out external noise.
Such foam earpieces also are the specialty of an Oakdale firm, Hearing Components, which this month released new Comply Noise Reduction-1 earphones at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The compact buds have easily swappable "memory foam" tips that, the maker claims, are three times softer than human skin and fit into ear canals better than competing foam tips.
The earphones, also known as Comply.NR1s, are intended for "the masses," said Hearing Components President Robert Oliveira, unlike pricier foam-based earpieces with more specialized followings.
Starkey, meanwhile, continues to broaden its product portfolio.
Upcoming gear includes the HomePort, an audio attachment for cordless-phone handsets that can be used with a generic or a custom-molded earpiece, and the BluePal, a tiny Bluetooth audio amplifier intended to improve hearing-aid performance by helping it fix onto and boost sounds — such as casual conversation — in too-noisy environments.
Other Starkey projects remain under wraps. But firm chief Ruzicka said he is determined to exploit the growing convergence of hearing-aid technologies and consumer-tech gadgetry that has spawned the Eli and the SoundPort.
It's all about "electronics tailored to individuals' needs," he said.
Julio Ojeda-Zapata can be reached at 651-228-5467 or jojeda@pioneerpress.com.For more personal technology on the Web or via RSS, go to TwinCities.com and click "Business," then "Personal Tech."
By Julio Ojeda-Zapata
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/13622373.htm
An ear for tech
Many Americans wouldn't be caught dead wearing a hearing aid, even if they've lost enough hearing to need one. So hearing-aid suppliers such as Eden Prairie-based Starkey Laboratories are trying to broaden their appeal with audiological products for all ages. Think custom-molded earpieces for teenage iPod junkies along with Bluetooth cell-phone headsets for their car-commuting moms and dads, to name a few.
The idea, according to Starkey, is to get consumers more comfortable with advanced in-the-ear technologies, and to remove the stigma associated with hearing aids, so they'll be likelier to embrace the audio-assistance devices when the time is right.
Such a shift would come none too soon, Starkey admitted.
Hearing aids are a big global market — the company estimates it's on the order of $1.6 billion in sales a year, with 7 million individual hearing aids sold — but one seeing low-single-digit growth. Only about one in 10 people who would see their lives vastly improved with a hearing aid actually use one, said Starkey President Jerry Ruzicka.
So while hearing aids are certain to remain Starkey's bread and butter — the privately held company claims a 25 percent U.S. hearing-aid market share and a 14 percent global share — a broader range of audiological products will figure prominently in the firm's marketing this year.
One gizmo, the Eli, consists of a hearing-aid plug-in module that adds Bluetooth wireless-networking capabilities. This is important, Starkey said, because it allows direct interaction with almost any Bluetooth-equipped cell phone.
It's just the thing to make a hearing aid hipper, not to mention more useful.
If the mildly hearing-impaired can't be coaxed into donning an Eli-augmented hearing aid, Starkey's SoundPort device could be the next best thing. The in-the-ear Bluetooth headset not only interacts with
Bluetooth cell phones but adds a bit of hearing-aid-like audio augmentation, according to the firm.
The Bluetooth earpiece makes use of a key Starkey technology — a hard-plastic earpiece that will fit a particular user's ear canal for better comfort.
Starkey has adapted this procedure for other products, such as hearing aids and MP3 earpieces that connect to standard iPod earbuds, along with the firm's line of much-pricier all-in-one earphones.
Starkey's foray into consumer electronics is so new that it is just beginning to develop its marketing strategy, said David Olson, director of the company's telecommunications-products division. The firm's Web site doesn't even mention the iPod add-ons yet.
But Olson anticipates targeting so-called "early adopters," largely by electronic means, along with the aggressive use of traditional print advertising.
Starkey will face plenty of competition. Custom-fitted earpieces now available range from a $10 do-it-yourself PodFitKit for use with iPod earbuds to pro-quality Ultimate Ears earbuds costing up to $900.
Molded earbuds typically must be bought from audiologists, which perform initial fittings by injecting silicon into customers' ear canals to create molds. It's largely in this setting that Starkey jostles with its rivals for slices of the so-called "recreational audiology" market.
Colorado-based Westone Laboratories, for instance, has become a mighty competitor after about five decades in the audiological-accessory market. It says it created sets of custom-fitted earpieces for Sony's pioneering Walkman cassette players, with all their iPod-like cachet, way back in the mid-1980s.
It has since diversified into a dizzying variety of markets, ranging from hearing-aid customization — it doesn't sell its own hearing aids but offers services to hearing-aid providers — to earpieces for swimmers, joggers, motorcyclists, military pilots and others.
Westone largely emphasizes earbuds for professional musicians — these merit a flashy Westone Music Products Web site of their own — but has lately seen the mainstream "iPod community take hold of this product," according to product-development manager Karl Cartwright.
Westone's network of 8,000 affiliated audiology clinics includes the Hearing Center and Store at the Park Nicollet medical clinic in St. Louis Park. In a press release, the clinic recently trumpeted its Westone-outsourced MP3 earbuds "so that music aficionados can get the rock-star fit they deserve."
But the iPod crowd remains a niche market, said Holly Dodds, the clinic's hearing-services manager.
In addition to molded-plastic earpieces, Westone sells "universal" earpieces. These have easy-to-replace foam tips that must be squished before being inserted in the ear canal, where they re-expand to largely block out external noise.
Such foam earpieces also are the specialty of an Oakdale firm, Hearing Components, which this month released new Comply Noise Reduction-1 earphones at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The compact buds have easily swappable "memory foam" tips that, the maker claims, are three times softer than human skin and fit into ear canals better than competing foam tips.
The earphones, also known as Comply.NR1s, are intended for "the masses," said Hearing Components President Robert Oliveira, unlike pricier foam-based earpieces with more specialized followings.
Starkey, meanwhile, continues to broaden its product portfolio.
Upcoming gear includes the HomePort, an audio attachment for cordless-phone handsets that can be used with a generic or a custom-molded earpiece, and the BluePal, a tiny Bluetooth audio amplifier intended to improve hearing-aid performance by helping it fix onto and boost sounds — such as casual conversation — in too-noisy environments.
Other Starkey projects remain under wraps. But firm chief Ruzicka said he is determined to exploit the growing convergence of hearing-aid technologies and consumer-tech gadgetry that has spawned the Eli and the SoundPort.
It's all about "electronics tailored to individuals' needs," he said.
Julio Ojeda-Zapata can be reached at 651-228-5467 or jojeda@pioneerpress.com.For more personal technology on the Web or via RSS, go to TwinCities.com and click "Business," then "Personal Tech."
By Julio Ojeda-Zapata
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/13622373.htm
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