Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Taking Back the Market

Could iPods Become the Next Hearing Aids?

Tim Nash - 2009.05.19

Popularity: LEMLEMLEM

del.icio.us Bookmark in del.icio.us

With about 50% of US households owning iPods and Apple holding on to over 70% market share, real growth has to come from abroad and from new markets, such as encouraging low cost paid-for-podcasts to take over from Music radio, discussed in How Apple Could Change the Face of Digital Music.

Hearing Loss

Baby Boomers are now in the age group where hearing loss is more and more of a problem. Aging rock musicians, many of whom sacrificed their hearing to over-amplified speakers at gigs, typify the problem. Trouble is, in western cultures, few want to admit they are getting older, and hearing loss is a sign of aging. With younger people, it is a sign of imperfection and again something most want to hide, as it can also lead to prejudice because of the association with aging and diminished mental sharpness.

The natural reaction is to leave using a hearing aid until it is difficult to function without one, making this for many a vanity market. Ads typically show young looking older people with hard-to-see hearing aids. In other words, miniaturisation rules the current market.

Now, thanks to Apple, white earbuds are everywhere. Because of the strength of Apple's advertising and sales, white earbuds mean an iPod. So instead of trying to hide the hearing aid, people could hide it in plain sight with a suitably modified iPod and earbuds. While this will not solve the problem for everyone with hearing loss, it will for many - and in particular the majority who would benefit but still try to get by without a hearing aid.

A Big Market

In Europe over 80 million are affected, ranging from 7% in France, to 20% in Germany, and to 35% in Spain. According to the FDA, there are at least 25 million Americans who suffer (2005 MarkeTrak Survey found over 31 million). Judging from the European figures, and because of the vanity issue, the true numbers could be much higher.

From just the USA and Western Europe, the potential market is over 100 million, most trying to do without a hearing aid. While cities stay noisy and many people live longer, the numbers will certainly go up. Worldwide, the market could be larger than the number of iPods sold to date.

With a "special edition" bundle of a good quality small microphone/earbuds, the net revenue for Apple would be above the iPod's usual average selling price and could be $250 to $300 if built around the iPod touch. So for each 5 million users in this price range, Apple would add $1.25 billion to $1.5 billion in revenue.

This iPod would become a medical device and thus need appropriate FDA certification, but for many uses of iPods in hospitals and for at-home tests for sending to doctors, FDA licenses will be needed anyway. The demo of a glucose monitoring system from Lifescan at the March 20 keynote and the medical category in the App Store show that Apple wants a part of the healthcare market, so it makes sense to put a team in place to get the necessary licenses.

Education

With the rollout of the iTunes U. there will be more and more reasons for iPods in the classroom. The faster iPods become part of lessons, the sooner Apple will have a stronger hold in education, and helping the 1-in-10 young Americans with hearing difficulties can only accelerate this. In the meantime, being able to keep their iPods on in the classroom when the others can't will lead to more kids getting treated earlier. It may also lead to fewer hearing-related, attention deficit problems in class.

This special edition will also make iPods much more attractive to senior citizens, a market that largely looks on the iPod as "something for teenagers" and has yet to take it up in large numbers. This is a market where many have enough income, above their largely fixed expenses, to afford to buy this. Taking over this market will also make Apple the most attractive option for speech-to-text software on mobile devices, as many like to see it in writing to make sure they haven't misheard.

Theatre

This is also a chance to effectively build iPods into the infrastructure. Many theatres, cinemas, etc. have induction loops so those with hearing aids can listen to the sound while enjoying the performance. It would be cheaper to install a WiFi channel. Everyone else with an iPod touch or iPhone would benefit too, as we could have the level of sound we want, and it would cut out the noise of popcorn and people talking.

With foreign language films everyone would have the choice of dubbed and original, removing any need for subtitling. In the home too, we could get away from walking into a room where the TV or radio is blaring.

Generally, the more it is promoted for other uses such as recording notes and podcasts, the more acceptable it will become to have the special edition. With more and more buildings, businesses, and homes having WiFi, the more useful apps (especially business apps) will become available, and the more carrying around an iPod touch (or iPhone) will seem natural.

Being the first choice of many millions more should bring them to try out other Apple hardware. Vanity may bring many to Apple retail stores, where they can buy the iPod "for other reasons", particularly when they see employees using iPods this way. It will make buying the special edition part of the standard shopping experience and much easier for many to do.

In the future, the complaint that gramps doesn't have his hearing aid on will be even more true - he'll be listening to classic rock while his kids talk about the stuff he's heard before.

For another generation, one of the causes of hearing loss will be playing their iPods too loudly. LEM

Tim Nash lives with his wife, her website on the area ariege.com, two daughters, a cat, and a dog in the French Pyrenees. He has worked for computer companies for more years than he cares to remember, lapsed for a while after the Apple II, but became a Mac fan when his wife introduced him to the IIsi. If you find his articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Taking Back the Market columns

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Custom Search

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.