Technology Life Cycle: Understanding the Stages of R&D, Ascent, Maturity, and Decline, Lecture notes of Mobile Computing

Download Technology Life Cycle: Understanding the Stages of R&D, Ascent, Maturity, and Decline and more Lecture notes Mobile Computing in PDF only on Docsity! The technology life cycle (TLC) describes the costs and profits of a product from technological development phase to market maturity to eventual decline. Research and development (R&D) costs must be offset by profits once a product comes to market. Varying product lifespans mean that businesses must understand and accurately project returns on their R&D investments based on potential product longevity in the market. Due to rapidly increasing rates of innovation, products such as electronics and pharmaceuticals in particular are vulnerable to shorter life cycles (when considered against such benchmarks as steel or paper). Thus TLC is focused primarily on the time and cost of development as it relates to the projected profits. TLC can be described as having four distinct stages: • The research and development (R&D) phase (sometimes called the "bleeding edge") when incomes from inputs are negative and where the prospects of failure are high • The ascent phase when out-of-pocket costs have been recovered and the technology begins to gather strength by going beyond some Point A on the TLC (sometimes called the "leading edge") • The maturity phase when gain is high and stable; the region, going into saturation, marked by M. • The decline (or decay phase), after a Point D, of reducing fortunes and utility of the technology. 1) Research and Development Phase During this stage, risks are taken to invest in technological innovations. By strategically directing Research and Development towards the most promising projects, companies and research institutions slowly work their way toward beta versions of new technologies.