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.”
In ordinary times, predicting an increase in market share when your sales are flat would be a bold claim. But like all global businesses, hearing-aid manufacturers have been hurt by the recession over the past two years and will be happy to eke out single-digit sales increases in 2010. Moreover, GN ReSound’s recent successful launch of its new flagship Alera family of hearing aids, which feature new wireless technology including streaming of TV audio signals into the hearing aids without requiring a device around the neck to relay the signal, gives the company reason to hope for faster growth than the rest of the industry the rest of this year.
GN ReSound is part of the GN Store Nord group, which also includes GN Netcom, maker of the popular Jabra Bluetooth headsets and a leading supplier of contact center and office (CC&O) headsets, a market expected to triple to nearly $2 billion in global sales by 2014. Like Sonova, which leverages its research and development in hearing aids to provide a broad line of other audio products, through GN Netcom the parent company is investing heavily in high-end hearing assistance products, above and beyond hearing aids.
anubhav kapoor says
Recently, there was some buzz about modern classrooms being set-up for children with hearing difficulties or progressive deafness wherein the walls were equipped with some panels that aided in understanding the sounds as their vibrations could be tuned by the implants/hearing aids that the children wore. If existing brands could bring about changes in this niche, they could break some ice, considering better solutions for solving learning-related difficulties are bound to engage some serious attention.