Newly Renamed Starkey Hearing Technologies Plans To Keep Putting New Wine In New Bottles

Sometimes when a company changes its name, the first thing you think is “old wine in new bottles.” But when Starkey Laboratories, the 45-year-old hearing aid company, today announced its name change to Starkey Hearing Technologies, it reflected how far the company has come in recent years. It also sent a strong signal on where the company is going–toward a future focused on developing new hearing technologies and integrating them into multiple brands of new hearing products for big consumer markets.

In recent years, Starkey has emerged as one of the top five global hearing aid companies, with nearly a billion dollars of sales from a broad line of products that meet consumers’ entire range of hearing needs. Its five hearing aid brands–Audibel, AudioSync, NuEar, MicroTech and the original Starkey brand–are increasingly driven by a common platform of new technologies in digital signal processing, sound processing, miniaturization, wireless connectivity to your phone, TV and other devices, and wireless binaural communication between hearing aids for a more natural balanced sound.

“Over the past decade, we have gone from a manufacturing company to a global technology company,” Jerry Ruzicka, President of Starkey Hearing Technologies, said in a news release. “The name change better aligns with both who we are as an organization, as well as our focus on innovation, technology and the diverse customers we serve.”

Starkey was founded in Minnesota by William Austin, who has devoted more time in recent years to philanthropy. His Starkey Hearing Foundation to date has given away more than 500,000 hearing aids to people in need in the U.S. and around the world, with a commitment to giving away more than 100,000 hearing aids annually and a goal of one million more this decade. In the meantime, Starkey’s new generation of operating leadership has poured money into R&D and new-product development, and the results are starting to make a big impact on hearing-industry markets.

Once known more for its sales strength than leadership in innovation, in recent years Starkey caught up to and in many instances surpassed other leading hearing-aid manufacturers in developing and promoting hot new technologies. Just this week the company’s new AMP “invisible” hearing aid is being honored at the International Consumer Electronics Show with a 2012 Innovations Design and Engineering Award.

But the newly named Starkey Hearing Technologies won’t be able to rest on its laurels, or its name change, to continue competing successfully in the increasingly competitive global high-end hearing technology industry, where all the leaders are driving the advanced technologies in their hearing aids into consumer products for markets such as high-tend audio, Bluetooth phones, headsets and earphones, and wireless devices.

Industry leader Sonova Group, whose Phonak brand has been both a technology and a marketing leader for years, has continued to drive innovation in sound processing and wireless technologies. GN Store Nord, parent of ReSound hearing aids, also has a Netcom headset division that is driving into industrial hearing protection and consumer markets for earphones and headsets including the popular Jabra bluetooth phone earpieces. And Oticon hearing-aid parent William Demant’s similar push into consumer hearing technologies is led by its high-end Sennheiser headsets and other well-known audio brands.

ReSound Donates Hearing Aids To Help America Hear Program

If you can’t afford hearing aids but need them, you may still be able to get them if you qualify. The Foundation for Sight & Sound is partnering with leading hearing-aid manufacturer ReSound to beef up its Help America Hear Program to provide more free hearing aids and proper hearing-aid fittings to people who can’t afford them. ReSound, the exclusive supplier of hearing aids to the program, has donated hundreds of pairs of hearing aids for people who meet financial eligibility requirements after applying on the Help America Hear web site.

The hearing aid industry manufacturers often define their work as a social mission to improve people’s lives by improving their ability to socialize and communicate. But it’s often hard to reconcile the claim that they are on a social mission when so many of their products are priced so high that only the very wealthiest of world’s consumers can afford them. Their social credibility would be higher if more manufacturers put their money where their mouth is by making a real effort to give something back, like ReSound and another notable example, Starkey Laboratories. Starkey Labs founder William Austen, whose Starkey Hearing Foundation has led the way for many years by raising millions of dollars to fund the donation of of hearing aids to tens of thousand of people around the world, says his foundation gives away 100,000 hearing aids a year, compared to the 1 million hearing aids sold annually by Starkey Labs: “It’s 10 percent, so it’s like tithing,” he told the Clark, County, WA, Columbian in an interview last Fall.

And the opportunity to give back doesn’t end with the manufacturers. There are millions of hearing aids sitting unused in bureau drawers around the world. Many of them could be reconditioned and provide a needy person with the gift of hearing. If you have a pair gathering dust in your drawer, you can donate them to Starkey’s Hear Now program. Another hearing aid manufacturer, America Hears, in the past has offered discounts to consumers who trade in their hearing aids and donates the used aids to a Rotary International Foundation program, Help the Children Hear.

New Hearing Aids From Starkey and Beltone Receive Innovation Honors At Consumer Electronics Show (CES)

The hearing aid industry has been historically slow to market its products to consumer electronics enthusiasts. That’s why it’s good to see a growing number of hearing aid companies submitting their products for design awards and for industry recognition. The world’s biggest venue for showing off new electronic products is the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which attracted tens of thousands of visitors to Las Vegas this week. This year, Starkey Laboratories and Beltone were both named International 2011 Design and Engineering Awards Honorees at CES in recognition of their new nearing aid designs.

Starkey won the award for its new OtoLens hearing aid, which the company promotes as “the world’s first custom invisible-in-the-canal hearing aid.” Beltone earned the honor for its new Beltone True hearing aid, with wireless features that enable direct RF streaming of audio from your TV, MP3 player and Bluetooth phone without an intervening streamer unit or induction neck loop.

For Starkey, it’s the third time in as many years they’ve received the CES innovation honor. Previously it won for having won for its S Series™ with Sweep™ Technology and Zōn™ hearing aid lines. Beltone’s new True hearing aid has similar features to the ReSound Alera hearing aid, sold by its sister company ReSound (both are subsidiaries of GN Store Nord and part of the GN ReSound group of companies).

ReSound’s Innovative Remote Microphone Technology Will Be Available With ReSound Alera Family Hearing Aids

When ReSound introduced its be by ReSound hearing aid several years ago, it was the first significant innovation in form factors I had seen in a while. By separating the microphone from the unit containing the digital signal processor (DSP) and receiver (speaker), be by ReSound opened up new possibilities for fitting in-the-ear (ITE) and completely in the canal (CIC) custom hearing aids. But be by Resound is an open-fit hearing aid for a limited range of fittings, mainly patients with mild hearing loss at higher frequencies.

Now with its announcement of its Remote Microphone (RM) Technology, ReSound is extending the concept to its popular ReSound Alera hearing aids and other custom hearing instruments. The result is a new class of hearing aids that will provide significant benefits — including more natural acoustic performance, more amplification in a smaller form factor, reduced feedback, and less wind-noise interference — for a broad range of users with mild, moderate and even severe hearing loss. Read more

While William Demant and GN ReSound Fought Over Otix, Sonova Widened Its Hearing-Aid Industry Market Lead

As GN ReSound and William Demant battled over who would win the battle to acquire Otix Global this fall, hearing-aid industry leader Sonova stuck to its knitting and on Nov. 16 claimed it has widened its market share lead. But at the same time, all three of the publicly traded hearing-aid manufacturers hinted they have turned the corner after several years of anemic growth in the global recession.

Sonova, parent of Phonak and other hearing-aid brands, reported more than eight percent organic growth in the first six months of its fiscal year in addition to revenue gains from the acquisitions of cochlear implant maker Advanced Bionics and InSound Medical, developer of the “invisible” Lyric hearing aid. With the growth in the global hearing aid market projected at no more than five percent in 2010, Sonova’s growth, powered by a slew of successful new products introduced over the past two years, earned it a substantial increase in market share. However, in the same report, the holding company lowered its earnings forecast for the remainder of the year, disappointing investors looking for earnings growth combined with faster revenue growth in the industry. Read more

Bidding War Breaks Out For Otix Global As William Demant And GN ReSound Vie For Market Share In Consolidating Hearing Aid Industry

A bidding war has broken out for Otix Global, maker of Sonic Innovations hearing aids and one of the world’s seven largest hearing-aid manufacturers, with William Demant Holding today matching GN ReSound’s $58 million (USD) acquisition bid. GN ReSound last week had topped William Demant’s initial $50 million bid to acquire the struggling U.S.-based company. Today’s $58 million, $10-per-share matching offer by William Demant, parent of global hearing-aid brands Oticon and Bernafon, demonstrates it remains intent on acquiring the Sonic Innovation brand to increase its share of the global hearing aid market. There was no immediate response from GN ReSound parent GN Store Nord on whether it will keep the bidding war going by responding with another higher bid. Read more

GN ReSound Expects To Increase Its Share Of The Global Hearing Aid Market After A Slow Two Years, But Industry Growth Remains Anemic

More evidence of a turnaround in worldwide sales of hearing aids came with GN ReSound’s announcement of improved financial results today, but overall growth in the industry remains anemic. GN ReSound, one of the six largest global hearing aid makers, announced flat organic growth in the second quarter of 2010 over the same period in 2009, after sales declines in the previous five quarters. And the Denmark company made an optimistic forecast for the remainder of the year, predicting that it will increase its share of the global hearing aid market in the second half of 2010.

“We expect to grow above the market in the second half of 2010,” said Lars Viksmoen, CEO of GN ReSound, pointing to the successful introductions of new high-end hearing aid families in late 2009 and the first half of 2010. “This expectation is building on the successful introduction of the Surround Sound by ReSound-featured products–ReSound Live and dot2 by ReSound in late 2009–combined with the global launch of ReSound Alera.” Read more

GN ReSound Alera Arrives With Wireless Features Setting The Bar Higher For Premium Hearing Aids

The wireless features in the new GN ReSound Alera family of hearing aids, which start shipping this week, are very similar to those found in several other high-end hearing aids already announced by other manufacturers. But, taken together, they help set the bar higher for premium hearing aids and assistive listening devices in general. The only question is how much better the new wireless features will make the new hearing aids from GN ReSound and other manufacturers when users start trying them out in the field.

One of the first things you learn in Marketing 101 is that  ”first,” “best” and “only” are some of the strongest words in the English language. So it’s no surprise that in the increasingly competitive hearing-aid industry, manufacturers are starting to use those words more often. GN ReSound’s news release announcing first shipments of the Alera hearing aids is a good example, claiming the company has come up with “the first truly wireless hearing aid with no strings attached.” The news release goes on to announce “a new approach to the way a hearing aid receives sound from devices such as TVs, stereos, cell phones and computers,” claiming that, “for the first time the patient can receive sound directly from the device without cables, wires or the need to wear uncomfortable accessories.” Read more

ReSound Alera Hearing Aids Provide Wireless Connectivity To TV And Mobile Phones

GN ReSound’s new flagship family of Alera hearing aids will provide wireless connectivity directly with mobile phones and television sets equipped with ReSound’s new Unite assistive listening device (ALD) accessories.

Like other new wireless ALD accessories from Widex and other hearing-aid manufacturers, the ReSound Unite accessories eliminate the need for transmission through the hearing aid’s telecoil from a neckloop attached to the transmitter. And because the new ReSound Alera hearing aids communicate with the Unite accessories at 2.4 gigahertz, they eliminate the interference and delays sometimes experienced with slower wireless transmission speeds used by other manufacturers. Read more

Race To Acquire Siemens Hearing Aids Heats Up As Cochlear Ltd. And Synthes Join Fray

Reuters quotes sources saying Cochlear Ltd., one of three global suppliers of cochlear implant devices as well as a leader in bone-anchored hearing aids, intends to join two private equity firms in making a multi-billion dollar bid for Siemens Hearing Instruments, which is being spun off by its parent company. The report also says Synthes, a global medical equipment manufacturer, also will join the bidding.

This is a huge story for the hearing aid industry, which is going through a wave of consolidation as the leading global players try to simultaneously gain market share by broadening their distribution at the low end of the market while building war chests for a new generation of R&D-led innovation at the high end of the market. Putting the very high end digital technologies required for cochlear implants under the same roof as mainstream digital hearing aids will give a shot of much-needed energy into high-end hearing-aid innovation. Read more

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