A Boston Globe report on May 3rd 2022 confirmed months of rumours which circulated within the hearing industry that the Bose hearing aid division was closing or shifting it's approach to how to gain market share.
Hearing technology has made leaps and bounds in developing outstanding product portfolio's from manufactures such as Oticon, Phonak, Starkey, Signia and GN Resound who specialise in hearing aids.
Over the last few years in America, the FDA’s mood around direct-to-consumer hearing aids has gone from very icy to increasingly warm. You can read more about the legislation here.
As someone with hearing loss, these changes are very welcome. It means more competition, more innovation, and, finally, lower prices. Which likely European countries would follow suit if successful in America.
In 2018 the FDA ruled that Bose could sell a self-fitting hearing aids without assistance from an audiologist.
2022
The news that Bose is ready to pull the plug on Hearing Aids, is not surprising. The business model is a remote and a transactional approach with limited or no aftercare. Hearing Aids are not headphones, hearing loss is individual and needs are to be tailored. The positives that Bose a leading technology company could apply to the stigma and awareness of hearing aids had huge potential, however the delivery of the initial launch was disappointing from aesthetics and performance however this doesn't mean it wouldn't get better. It looks like we won't know unless things change or, a potential partnership with an established hearing aid manufacture happens, similar to Sonova (owner of Phonak and Unitron) acquiring Sennhiser in 2021.
A Hearing Aid is a medical device. It's time consumer electronics companies focus on what matters as we do at Somerset Hearing, the patient. Somerset Hearing prides it's self on clinical expertise and aftercare making sure we apply a complete patient centric process to have outstanding outcomes which reflect our 5 star rated service.
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