Jabra had good and bad news to announce to its fans at a presentation. The good news included the presentation of two new premium BT headphones. The negative news, on the other hand, caused some dismay. The headphone expert is planning to cease its activities on the headphone market.
Two more Jabra headphones – then it’s over
For many years, the GN Group has enjoyed great success with its headphone brand Jabra. However, the pressure on the market with the increasing competition in the premium spectrum seems to have become too strong for the company. After announcing two upcoming headphones, the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 and Elite 8 Active Gen 2, the company immediately announced the end of the brand.
In order to survive on the market, there was simply not enough money for the necessary investments. This applies not only to the development of future products. Marketing is also likely to be anything but easy in the face of growing competition such as the Apple AirPods series. However, the GN Group has apparently only drawn a line under the area of headphones for the mass market.
As part of the announcement of the end of well-known series such as Jabra Elite, the umbrella company emphasized that it wanted to focus on “more attractive business areas” in the future. The CEO of GN Store Nord, Peter Karlstromer, said in this regard that there are attractive markets that the company wants to focus on in the future. The aim is to achieve high growth and high returns.
End despite gains?
However, the GN Group’s comments are somewhat confusing. After all, it does not justify the end of Jabra’s popular headphones with poor sales figures. In fact, the opposite is the case. The brand was even able to record profits, particularly with sales of the Elite series. However, Jabra is obviously seen as having much greater potential.
According to Karlstromer, a look at the market shares makes it clear that the brand’s products in the “Hearing, Enterprise and Gaming business areas […] cannot achieve an adequate return on investment”. This will end for both Elite and Talk at the end of 2024. As the GN Group actually works in the field of medical hearing aids, Jabra could perhaps appear as a manufacturer of hearing aids in the future.
