The "technology costs money" argument makes no sense when you consider that the Apple Airpods retail for $169. They contain: - mics - DSPs - drivers (speaker

The "technology costs money" argument makes no sense when you consider that the Apple Airpods retail for $169. They contain: - mics - DSPs - drivers (speakers) - custom wireless chipset - batteries i.e. all of the stuff that you need to build a regular HA. The differences are that: - they have shorter battery life (but a lower capacity battery) - built in larger quantities - not 'medical grade' Telecoil doesn't add significantly to the cost, but it does use a bit of internal volume. They are incredibly useful and are not going away anytime soon. It's not like you need the 2017 model of HA; for most people the 2000 model would be just fine, and (for the company) the costs of IC development and regulatory have long been recovered. ASICs are expensive to produce, but not that expensive that it adds thousands to the COGS. The real reason is simple market forces: people will pay a lot of money for healthcare. Insurance coverage in the target market determines much of the price.