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Sivantos announces Styletto: stylish high-tech hearing aids

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2018-08-27

Sivantos announces Styletto: stylish high-tech hearing aids with portable charging

⦁ Styletto combines elegant design, portable rechargeability and high-tech hearing into stylish hearwear
⦁ Styletto’s new form factor generates a strong and proven consumer preference

Audiology technology leader Sivantos today unveiled its latest hearing solution: Styletto. Wearers of the exceptionally slim Styletto from the Signia brand can express their individual style by choosing one of three elegant color combinations. A consumer study shows that 8 out of 10 people prefer the Styletto design over conventional hearing aids.

Ignacio Martinez, CEO of Sivantos, said: “Styletto is trendsetting hearwear that combines premium technology with the most stylish design. Styletto is the future.”

A new charging paradigm

The Styletto hearwear revolution has been made possible by using the company’s unique skillset of packing advanced signal processing electronics and refined rechargeable technology into a tiny ultra-low power circuit board as well as a pin shaped Li-Ion battery instead of the industry’s conventional round batteries. Thanks to these technological accomplishments, the company has been able to create a never-seen-before form factor titled “SLIM-” (Slim Receiver-In-Canal hearing aid). In addition to its far sleeker and distinctive look compared to traditional hearing aids, the new power solution also caters to modern people’s more active lifestyles. Styletto’s slim portable charging case enables four days(1) of user autonomy, free from plugs or cables for completely convenient handling on the move.

The hearing aids offer the latest advancements of the proven Signia Nx platform in terms of energy efficiency, rechargeable Li-ion batteries and Own Voice Processing (OVP) for a natural sounding own voice. The ultra HD e2e link provides clear speech understanding even in loud environments, enhanced spatial awareness, and supports an extended dynamic range for superior hearing.

Opening new market opportunities

The appeal of Styletto in helping hearing care professionals to attract a wider range of customers has been proved by a Signia consumer study conducted earlier this year. The study shows that Styletto’s iconic look is preferred by more than 8 out of 10 people compared to conventional hearing aids.(2) It also reveals that Styletto drives in-store conversion of people with hearing loss into hearing aid wearers, significantly increasing the number of people who express interest in Signia branded hearing aids by 14 percent.(3)

Styletto is available in three elegant color combinations: Dark Granite and Silver, Cosmic Blue and Rose Gold, or Snow White and Rose Gold. It is scheduled to go on sale in September 2018 in the USA, several European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom), Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and in the rest of the world during Q4 2018.

For more information, visit www.signia-pro.com/styletto83

(1) Based on 16 hours wearing time per day

(2) Signia consumer study 2018: When presented with a choice, 84% of respondents chose an offering with Styletto from two different shop window options in which the only differentiating factor was Styletto.

(3) Signia consumer study 2018: Asked which hearing aids from the Signia portfolio they would chose, only 10% of respondents selected “none” with Styletto present versus 24% with Styletto absent.

About Sivantos Group

The business operations of the former Siemens AG hearing aid division have been combined into the Sivantos Group since early 2015. Sivantos can look back on 140 years of German engineering and countless global innovations. Today Sivantos is one of the leading hearing aid manufacturers worldwide. With its around 6,000 employees, the group recorded revenues of 967 million euros in the fiscal year 2016/2017 and an adj. EBITDA of 238 million euros. Sivantos’ international sales organization supplies hearing care specialists and sales partners in more than 120 countries. Particularly high value is placed on product development. Sivantos aims to become the market leader in the coming years with its brands Signia, Siemens, Audio Service, Rexton, A&M, HearUSA and audibene. The owners of Sivantos are the anchor investors EQT along with the Strüngmann family as a co-investor. Sivantos GmbH is a brand license holder of Siemens AG. More information can be found at www.sivantos.com9

Styletto

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Edited

Very strange form factor… Slim, but very long. I think it will be more visible along the ear, than short casing closed by hairs. I have Oticon Dynamo hearing aids in long casing, and they are very visible.

@anon33641277 said:

I think it will be more visible along the ear

I don’t think they are going for discretion so much as style with this product. Also, the cool innovation here (imho) is that Signia has moved away from the “button cell” battery to enable a hearing aid shape that was previously impossible.

I’d be concerned about vendor lock-in. Rechargeable batteries degrade over time. It is not a matter of “if” but a matter of “when”. So, when these degrade to the point of being a problem:

  1. Will the batteries be replaceable? Or will the whole aid have to be replaced?

  2. Who will perform the replacement? The user? The audiologist? Or will it have to be shipped to Signia?

  3. Where will the replacement batteries be available from? Until I see proof to the contrary, I’m expecting these aids to use a custom form-factor for the batteries and thus be only available through Signia. Which means that replacement batteries would be available until Signia decides it not in their interest to provide them anymore.

My guesses based on other manufacturers:

  1. Battery replaceable
  2. Not the user
  3. ~7-10 years before the part is deemed obsolete

He’s fast.

Also no bluetooth, they really missed out on the hearable/wearable market. Just a remote on phone?

In reply to @anon33641277

@anon33641277 said:

As I can see these aids have not any power off switch? What if I would keep them in a dryer overnight? They will whistle for all night?

Rechargeable devices often are able to detect when they are put in their charger and they shut off when they detect that. Some chargers are also dryers but I don’t know if it is the case here.

If they’re like the Charge and Gos, they turn on when removed. This setup works fine unless the power goes out! (If it’s not clear, when aids are disconnected from power (like a power outage), they turn on)

Lack of Bluetooth aside, what would be real cool and not fake cool is to make the device half or one third the current length. Of course they can’t do that and fit a rechargeable inside at the same time, So their marketing department has concoct the idea of coolness to hide the fact that it’s actually uncool.

I doubt if many hearing aids wearers care to wear their hearing aids as an ear ornament.

Innovation is bound to include failures. Whether this will catch on or not, I wouldn’t hazard a guess.

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