By Christina Ruhngård

In Scandinavia we have a tradition of people with different education and background coming together and working towards a common goal. Our values help us develop products where technology supports humans, a quality we label “human-tech”. This makes for innovations and products that people enjoy using.

Our countries are small; early on we adapted to a global market. Because of this, we are used to collaborating and we have the knowledge of creating effective processes for working together. The Øresund region also offers the benefit of being a border region. We have two countries with different cultures. Combining the Danish aptitude for business and the Swedish industrial tradition gives successful enterprises that make use of established networks between the countries.

Mobile phone value chain

Both Nokia and Sony Ericsson have huge development centres in the Øresund region. Shared technology and product development have strengthened the region’s profile in mobile technologies and leading research centres are found at the Technical University of Denmark and Lund’s Institute of Technology. The demands for new features and functionality have attracted many more actors to the region. Today the mobile phone value chain constitutes a large cluster with hundreds of companies doing research and development.

Within the mobile phone industry, companies have become more specialized in their niche. This has led to a horizontal value chain of suppliers, partners and customers.

Take for instance a mobile phone from Sony Ericsson. It is based on a platform from Ericsson Mobile Platforms. Consulting companies specialized in the telecom industry, like Teleca and HiQ, have developed part of its software. Other applications may be imaging from Scalado, exiting games from Softhouse and ITE, as well as a user interface designed by TAT. It can even be used as a navigator by getting a mobile phone based navigation package, Wayfinder Navigator, from Wayfinder Systems. The package includes a GPS receiver, the software and service access, and maps. All these vendors are based in the Øresund region.

And of course, there are multitudes of accessories that have been designed for mobile phones and many use Bluetooth.

Wireless headset cluster

The Bluetooth technology, developed by Ericsson in Lund in collaboration with industry partners, is a small size, low-cost, short range radio solution. It has become a de facto standard within wireless communication. This, in synergy with large hearing aid and sensor communities, has spurred the formation of a headset cluster.

Here you can find GN Netcom, a company that develops and markets a portfolio of headsets. They have also added Bluetooth devices to their product line. Their knowledge of offices’ and contact centres’ working environment has been leveraged in the development of the devices, making them suitable to use both with stationary office phones and mobiles.

The Flamingo earphone is another example of design and technology working together to form a competitive product using Bluetooth. It is a small device that fits in a human ear using a fitting system called EarClick. CellPoint Connect markets Flamingo and on their web site they report user reactions such as, “After a few minutes, I forgot I was wearing it!”. Flamingo is a part of Cellpoint’s strategy to provide targeted mobile solutions.

Another headset manufacturer, Nextlink, has developed a Bluetooth device called Bluespoon. All their headsets are based on a technology where speech is transmitted through vibrations in the jaw bone to a microphone in the ear. This makes for very small headsets that function well in noisy environments. Nextlink produces headsets for the professional market and Bluetooth devices for the consumer market.

Sennheiser Communications has added a Bluetooth headset with adaptive intelligence, the BW 900, to their product line of headset solutions for professional telecommunication and multimedia applications. The BW 900 automatically adjusts to compensate for ambient noise and remembers the user’s preferred settings. The company combine expertise in the fields of electro acoustics and hearing health care in developing state-of-the-art head sets.

There are several companies that provide headsets with Bluetooth. They all draw from their experience from different fields. The world leader in mobile communications, Nokia, has several headset models with Bluetooth for the user to choose from. Competition is fierce and there is no shortage of attractive alternatives for the interested customer.

Hearing aids are “human-tech”

About 35% of hearing aids today originate from companies based in the Øresund region. GN ReSound, Widex and Oticon are leaders, who have grown from an environment where skilled doctors and nurses were funded by government to set up an extensive network of hearing clinics. This resulted in a demanding buyer’s community that led entrepreneurs with knowledge of audio and sensors to meet hearing expertise. The Technical University of Denmark has also played an important role in the process. The willingness to team up and cooperate has become a key skill among actors in the region.

The need to shrink size, improve acoustic performance of hearing aids and gain longer battery life drove the development of highly advanced chips. And they also considered the users’ need of comfort and enjoyable sound as well as their concerns about appearance. The development within this cluster serves as an example of how hi-tech meet human needs.

International pull

A cluster of this size attracts the attention of many international companies. Intel and Broadcom have both established a presence in the region. Broadcom markets semiconductor solutions for broadband communications to the home, enterprise and mobile markets. And Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor chip maker, supply advanced technology solutions for the computing and communications industry. Cisco has also invested, recently they bought KiSS Technologies. KiSS has emerged as a leader in networked video and audio products in Europe and Cisco hopes to use that expertise to expand worldwide.

This article was originally published by Øresund IT Magasine (nr. 6 - 2005). You can download the magazine in PDF format on Publications.