Apple ipods Hearing Aids

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Here’s the Washington Post:

Apple said Monday that its AirPods Pro 2 will soon double as an FDA-approved hearing device. The long-anticipated move comes two years after the Food and Drug Administration green-lit the sale of hearing aids over the counter. Some brands such as Jabra already make traditional aids you can order directly online without a prescription, while companies including Sony started making earbuds with hearing enhancement for people with mild to moderate hearing loss…

Apple said that after FDA clearance in the fall, the hearing features will be available via a software update . The AirPods Pro 2 will cost $249.

To set up hearing enhancement, users can take a hearing test inside the Apple Health app that’s based on the pure-tone test used by audiologists. The results of the test automatically adjust your AirPods’ sound levels, or you can download the test as a PDF to show an audiologist. (You can also input existing hearing test results into the Health app.)

Apple engineers turning AirPods into hearing aids is wonderful, but it’s not a uniquely difficult endeavor. In fact, what’s happening here is that a set of elected leaders opened up a market closed off by a cartel that had secured a comfortable position, shielded by the Food and Drug Administration. And engineers, many of whom care deeply about hearing, acted in this new legal space to create tools to help people live better lives.

A month ago I was in the local WalMart. They had OTC hearing aids priced $289 to $1195.

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Well, all well and good, but I suspect not many people are going to walk around with the little white battery pole hanging from their ears all day.

I’m all for having some well designed hearing aids that cost $250 instead of $1500 (what I just paid) but I don’t think this is it, at least in terms of a mass market item.

I’ve long wondered why Apple doesn’t apply its engineering prowess to design such a thing. They clearly have the technology to do it, it’s a high margin item needed by a super-large segment of the population around the world, and I applaud this effort, but as a substitute for the less obtrusive “battery behind the ear” and “controlled in the app” options that are out there now, unlikely to be adopted in those kinds of numbers.

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I’m sure it is coming. Apple had to get approval first. Hearing aids are a racket. They are one area of consumer electronics where the price has never come down thanks to regulatory capture. About time somebody did something about it.

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