GN Hearing Reports Market-Share Gain in 2018

GN Hearing's ReSound and Beltone hearing aid brands continued to build momentum in 2018 on the strength of products based on its new chip platform. Parent company GN Store Nord reported the hearing group posted 7% organic growth to DKK 5.8 billion ($890 million USD)—enough to claim another year of global hearing-aid market share gains.

GN Hearing said its new Made-for-iPhone ReSound LiNX Quattro products, introduced last summer, helped drive 10% organic revenue growth in the fourth quarter. "Our current products and our pipeline are very strong, which bodes well for 2019 and beyond," said GN Hearing CEO Jakob Gudbrand.

The new chip platform features GN's 6th-generation of 2.4 GHz wireless communication technology and delivers 30% more computing power, 100% faster processing speed, 100% more memory, and 25% less power consumption than its previous generation chipset. GN said improved sound processing and longer rechargeable battery life have helped attract new customers.

Artificial intelligence-based products on the way

In a presentation for financial analysts, GN also hinted at new products under development that will be based on new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies:

• An Intelligent Agent for Situated Learning will provide personalized noise management through "crowd-source data sharing for predictive noise reduction."
• An Intelligent Agent for Big Data Learning will enable audiologists to provide personalized patient management through precision fitting that defines the best first fit for the user, and via "remote fine-tuning and learning to support in-situ adaptation in real-world environments."

Strong corporate financial performance

GN Audio's commercial and consumer headset brands, including the popular wireless Jabra Elite family, turned in even stronger 2018 performance than GN Hearing, reporting 21% organic revenue growth to DKK 4.77 billion ($729 million USD).

Parent company GN Store Nord reported overall combined organic growth of 13% to DKK 10.6 billion ($1.6 billion USD). The holding company also reported a 12% increase in pre-tax earnings over the previous year to DKK 1.9 billion ($290 million USD).