WHAT'S NEW
Welcome to Columbia Hearing Center’s “What’s New” web page. It is here that you can find recent media articles on new technology, upcoming events and timely links to other web sites. We hope you find this information timely, interesting and useful!
HIPPER HEARING FOR BOOMERS
Article from BusinessWeek
A hearing aid used to be right up there with dentures as an unwelcome sign of aging. But the bulky beige devices are yielding to sleek, colorful ones as America's baby bombers become part of the $3.5 billion hearing aid market. Oticon, based in Denmark, offers the Delta, designed to look like an electronic gadget. "We tried to make it cool," says Gordon Wilson, Oticon's marketing vice-president. The aid (above) has a stylish behind-the-ear amplifier that comes in bold colors. Teresa Clark, a San Mateo (Calif.) audiologist, says
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she has sold about 20 of the aids since their debut some six weeks ago. They sell for $1,700 to $3,000, depending on the features. GN ReSound, another design-conscious hearing aid maker, also based in Demark, has sold 300,000 of its ReSoundAIRs since their launch in 2003.
Some 15% of America's 77 million boomers have hearing loss, and, says Sergei Kochkin, head of the nonprofit Better Hearing Institute, aids that look like "a cool little consumer electronics device" fit their generation's vigorous self-image.
- Louise Lee
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