Teenagers will be thin on the ground at CeBIT until they are let in for E15 on Sunday and on the last day, but one product being launched there has been designed with the ears and wallets of the youth market very much in mind.

The Soundbug is an innovative gadget about the size of a mobile phone that can turn virtually any hard surface - such as a table, door or window - into an effective soundboard for music or voice. It is the first of a range of products planned over the next few years that is destined to bring the technology of magnetostriction or magnetoelasticity into the consumer market.

Magnetostriction exploits the fact that certain smart metals will expand and contract thousands of times a second, in a regular, controllable manner, when a magnetic field is passed around them. Suitably packaged and attached to a hard surface, you have a solid-state loudspeaker - sound waves are created without the traditional speaker diaphragm in which air is excited by a moving coil core.

Inside each Soundbug is a tiny sliver of the magnetostrictive material Terfenol-D, a meld of iron and rare earth metals that is grown into crystals in only two places in the world, at a recently opened factory in China and at US-based Etrema's plant in Iowa. The material has mainly been used so far in military equipment such as sonar.

Today's public debut for Soundbug (it was shown privately at a US trade fair in January) is an important step for two very different companies. Newlands Scientific, spun-off in 1994 from Hull University in the UK and still based on a science park there, has amassed a wealth of expertise, and a fistful of patents, on the applications for magnetostriction. But under its new managing director, product innovation expert Brian Smith, it has acquired a much-needed commercial edge.

Negotiations

At the end of October, after six months of negotiations, Newlands signed a licensing deal with German-based Olympia International Holdings, which will be making the Soundbug at one of its factories in China, and distributing it in Europe, North America and potentially Asia, too. "We were looking for a partner to which we could give exclusive distribution, manufacturing and selling rights, and which could take Soundbug and some of our other product ideas forward," says Brenda Hopkins, Newlands' chairman.

Olympia, part of Hong Kong's Elite Group, is best known for its typewriters, which are still the biggest part of its business. Its president, Richard May, was brought in by Paul Murphy, Elite's new chief executive, to find new ways to develop the famous brand that would exploit the company's manufacturing and distribution strengths.

The Soundbug, which will be marketed under the Olympia brand name but also carry Newland's umbrella name for the technology, FeOnic, fits the bill perfectly. "It's a beautiful marriage," says Mr May. "It met our goals for a product that would appeal to young consumers who will grow up to be our main consumers."

Mr May will not be blinding Soundbug's potential adolescent end-users with the arcane science of magnetostriction. The device, which can be fitted to any personal stereo product, singly or in series for stereo sound, will be marketed as "a sound revolution."

"Teenagers like products which reproduce sound in an innovative way," says Mr May. "We haven't had a child yet that has said they don't want it."

The Soundbug (www.soundbug.biz) should be on retailers' shelves in the second half of this year, and is being launched initially in the US, UK and Germany at $49, £39.99 and E49 respectively. The roll-out to other markets will follow soon afterwards.

Olympia wants to build as complete a picture it can of the sales prospects ahead of the potentially crucial Christmas season. Mr May has been looking back at other products for teenagers that have been launched in a downturn, and says recession does not appear to affect sales. "It's almost the reverse. People may have to cut back on holidays and other spending, but they won't make cuts that affect their children," he says.

On the other hand, Mr May admits that, as with many such products, the Soundbug could be a fad that has its moment in the limelight before young consumers move on to the next craze. Fortunately, other products are emerging from the Olympia/Newlands partnership that could have more lasting impact.

Also on Olympia's stand in Hall 1 at Hanover are two forthcoming versions of the Soundbug that can be used with a mobile phone in cars. The first is a wired device that is likely to sell in the UK for £49.99 and takes its power from the cigar lighter. The second, a wireless version that will cost £99.99, uses Bluetooth, the much- hyped short-range wireless standard, to communicate with the mobile.

These devices are due to be launched in the summer and autumn respectively, and Olympia has already been talking to retailers and mobile operators. Attached in a safe position on a car window (such as behind the driver's rear-view mirror) they are designed to provide a much cheaper, more convenient alternative to existing hands-free kits. In an increasing number of countries worldwide, this is the only legal way to use a mobile while driving.

A prototype of the Soundbug Pro-Conference, a tabletop conference phone about the size of half a grapefruit, will also be shown at CeBIT. Independently, Newlands is working on a similar looking device, but without a microphone, that could be used in series to provide sound in a home cinema and might also use Bluetooth.

An early version is destined for the next "Orange at home," a home of the future project run by the mobile operator in a detached house 35km north of London.

Beyond that, Newlands has a wide range of ideas to develop the FeOnic brand - everything from "whispering windows" and anti-noise devices at restaurant tables to non-sound applications in "liquid management." There is also the prospect of getting the devices integrated into products such as mobile phones, MP3 players and helmets, rather than used as an attachment, although Ms Hopkins says this could take a little longer to achieve.

An article on Newlands, Etrema and the technology of magnetostriction appeared in the FT on October 11, 2000, and is available here.