FILE PHOTO: Logo of Swiss hearing aid maker Sonova is seen at the company's headquarters in Staefa, Switzerland May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
(Reuters) -Switzerland's Sonova on Tuesday introduced a hearing aid that utilises real-time artificial intelligence to improve speech clarity from background noise, the first such product in the global market, sending its shares 5% higher.
Along with the hearing aid, named Sphere Infinio, Sonova is launching a new Infinio platform.
"The launch of both new platform and product should be a surprise to the market, because nobody knew this technology and this benefit (real-time AI), which is quite significant, will be available for anyone already this year," CEO Arnd Kaldowski told Reuters in an interview.
"This sounds like a huge step forward for Sonova," Urs Kunz, an analyst at Research Partners AG, said in an email.
Unlike its main rivals - Italy's Amplifon and Denmark's Demant and GN Store Nord which have all warned on profits this summer - Sonova stuck to its full year targets.
"Our first impression is that Sonova has launched an interesting product platform, which is likely to accelerate growth in H2 2024/25," Carnegie analyst Niels Granholm-Leth said in a note to clients.
The hearing aid industry has been showing signs of softer market dynamics in Europe and the U.S., while analysts have also flagged tough competition in the market.
"We will need to see how the market evolves and the customer reaction to the products. But we are good with our full year guidance even with the currently somewhat slower market," Kaldowski said.
Sphere Infinio uses new DEEPSONIC chip technology that has 53 times more processing power than what is currently used by the hearing aid industry, Sonova said in a statement.
It views Infinio and its existing Lumity platform as the main future growth drivers for its hearing instrument business, which brings in around a half of its total sales.
(Reporting by Amir Orusov and Anastasiia Kozlova in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)
