Product Life Cycle

The product life cycle is a concept that provides a way to trace stages of a products acceptance, from its birth to death. Applying this cycle to the Apple iPhone. Its introduction stage was in 2007 with the 1st generation. This is when people started first hearing about it. It is a full scale launch of a new product into the market stage. The first impression is always the most important, and considering since that date they have had 5 generations, I would say they did a good job. This phone introduced itself 128 MB memory, and since then it has grown progressively to hold 1GB. Throughout the different generations the iPhone went to the growth stage. This is when the sales are typically growing at an increasing rate, many competitors enter the market, large companies start to acquire small pioneering firms, and the profits are healthy. The maturity stage is next which is a period during which sales increase at a decreasing rate. In my opinion this is where the apple iPhone is right now in its product life cycle because everyone knows what they are all about, jumped on the band-wagon or not, and now there are lots and lots of other options in the market now and its not the only one of its kind. The decline stage is where there is a long-run drop in sales. This is where Apple would start to see other competitors increasing in sales and they would be decreasing. Prices are getting to be imperative for a company to survive. If they see after the maturity stage that sales are dropping they should seriously consider changes to their product whether it is cost, quality, looks, or capabilities.

Can you take the product life cycle and apply it to a different product or service?