In quite a bit of shocker, GN Store Nord, parent company of familiar names like Jabra, ReSound, and SteelSeries, has decided to slowly sunset development and production of Jabra’s consumer and professional catalog, namely its Elite and Talk product line. This mic drop of a news comes despite a strong first quarter for its consumer business, plus the launch of the highly-regarded Jabra Elite 8 and 10 Gen 2 earphones. We can only imagine what GN’s investors are thinking right now.
Literally on the same day the new Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 and Elite 10 Gen 2 were unveiled, Danish parent company GN Store Nord announced that it plans to “gradually wind-down its Elite and Talk product lines to increase focus and resources on more attractive parts of GN’s business”.
This announcement comes even with Jabra’s continued contribution to a large portion of the group’s margins. Moreover, the commercial success and community respect for Jabra’s enterprise Talk headsets and consumer Elite devices are well recorded, all of which makes this news so mind-blowing.
GN’s reasoning is that it wants to “increase focus and resources on more attractive parts of GN’s business”, such as its hearing, enterprise, and gaming divisions. While the company continues to take pride in the profitability and acclaim the Elite and Talk products have garnered over the years, it feels that the investment “required for future innovation and growth in this very competitive space is deemed unjustified in the long-term given associated risks”. Say, what?
While not as much of pop culture as AirPods or Bose, Jabra’s Elite line of audio devices have traditionally innovated ahead of its rivals. For example: the fantastic Jabra Elite 85H premium ANC headphone (released in April 2019) had monster battery life before it was a thing, twist-to-turn-on earcups, and water-repellent nano-coating.
It’s our hope that GN has a broader plan to return to consumer audio, but until then, we’d like to pour one out for Jabra. You will be missed.