Product Life Cycles

Understanding a Product’s
Life Span
• Like an innovation, all products have a life in the user
space or marketplace
• In its first stage, the innovative product is ready for
customer use and introduced into the marketplace;
sales and use are fairly low
• Next its appeal becomes obvious as it grows in
popularity and sales
• Sales and use mature in a third stage with flat growth
• A fourth stage is either decline of the product’s us, or
reinvention of the product via a form of innovation

1
Product Life Cycle

2
 Gartner Hype Cycle

Summary Ideas on Life Cycles

• Most innovative products and services will have a
fairly definable life cycle
• Life spans of innovations can vary, depending on their
market popularity and durability—especially in the
maturity phase of the life cycle
• All innovative products and services reach a stage
where they either decline or cease in use or become
reinvented through innovation and live another life
cycle