Assistive and healthcare-focused hearables facilitate proactive management of hearing loss and other medical conditions; enabling long-term care cost savings compared to traditional therapies. As such, Juniper Research anticipates that these segments will comprise 18% of hearables’ shipments by 2024, compared to 12% in 2021.
The new research, "Hearables: Emerging Opportunities, Competitor Leaderboard & Market Forecasts 2022-2026," forecasts that the US and Germany will grow to account for 50% of total hardware revenue from emerging hearables use cases by 2024. It highlighted high levels of industrial digitalization, allied with widespread connectivity and ubiquitous consumer devices, as key to these countries’ positions as leaders.
Characterizing the segment, the report identified an increasing number of major hearing aid manufacturers now producing devices that fall under the hearables definition, typically by integrating app-based functionalities. "These will take some time to enter the mainstream of hearing aid usage; particularly in markets that have public or universal healthcare services, as these typically provide devices that are still behind the state of the art," research author Adam Wears states.
"This indicates that, for most of these companies, the key is not necessarily integrating technology to make hearing aids, but considering other functionalities that could be added to their devices, as well as how to scale these devices in such a manner that they become affordable. The development of hearables that act like ‘audio reading glasses’ is vital here; providing situational hearing enhancement alongside other capabilities that low-power and low-cost connectivity can provide. However, these will typically not be offered by traditional hearing aid brands that wish to maintain their more specialized businesses, but by electronics companies offering similar solutions at a lower price point.
"In addition to audio playback features via assistive hearables and hearing aids, biometric sensors will become more common over time; requiring more intensive data transfer over existing connections. However, this will be an area where traditional hearing aids have an advantage, as their more advanced models are already expected to be on a daily charge," he adds.
The new report also identified Apple as leading the hearables market using the Juniper Research Competitor Leaderboard, which provides an independent assessment of hearables vendors’ market standing.
“Our research anticipates sustainability initiatives will impact future hearables’ shipments, meaning vendors must target product comprehensiveness, rather than specificity, to attract consumers. We have ranked Apple as an established leader due to its expansive, differentiated offerings; comprising high-quality audio with advanced assistive and healthcare-focused technologies that leverage its existing partnerships with stakeholders across the value chain in established and emerging use cases,” Wears explains.
For more insights, download Juniper's free whitepaper: What Trends Are Key to Increasing Hearables’ Volume?
www.juniperresearch.com
