The cell phone is a product that I would like to think that I am familiar with the life cycle.
Cell phones much like other electronic devices become outdated with time. However, what
I have noticed is that marketing tends to be the determining factor of time when a device is
outdated. In my experience, a cell phone is serving its purpose until the user's needs are no
longer being met. It becomes the end of the life cycle for the device once the user
determines that it is no longer satisfying their needs. I remember saying that as long as I
can make are receive calls, my device is just fine, I don't need to upgrade. That thought
soon became I need to also send and receive text messages. As new devices launched that
sparked my interest to do the additional things that I wanted my device life cycle came to
an end. The only reason the cycle ended was that devices that served my new purpose and
much more were being marketed and in many cases with some type of incentive. Those
incentives targeted more reasons to get rid of my old device. The enhancement and
incentives that are offered allow new devices continually end the life cycle of older devices.
one product that I am very familiar with is computers and all the components that make
them up with graphics cards in particular as well. Computers are subject to Moore's law
which states that every 18-24 months technology has to capability to increase in power and
decrease in size. While you can build your own computer and have it in such a way that
you only swap out parts when you need them, parts to come out very rapidly and
components are always getting replaced. Being that technology is a very difficult thing to
keep up with, the marketing strategies that these companies have to put into place are
nothing less than amazing when it comes to understanding just how quickly these new
products are cranked out. For graphics cards they come paired with a software that you
need to optimize and make sure that the card is running properly so, since you're launching
into that program you're of course always going to be seeing the new ads for the new wave
of cards coming out as well as a small video showing what's new and what all you would
be able to do with the new cards. The product I selected based off my knowledge of the
product life cycle is Apple Inc's iPhone. Apple's iPhone was introduced to the market in
2007, in which they hit the growth stage pretty quickly and surpassed their sales goal. Over
the course of 2008-2015, sales for iPhone continued to increase. In the year 2016, Apple's
iPhone hit their maturity stage. In this year, sales decreased for the first time since
launching 9 years prior. It has since stayed in the maturity stage for the last 7 years. The
question being asked about Apple's iPhone is "will it continue to stay in the matured stage
or will we end up seeing a decline"? Since their initial launch, their revenue has grown
from 19.1B to 394.3 B, and they have launched at least 16 different iPhone models. A big
part of their success of staying in the maturity stage is offering newer iPhone models and
different accessories that pair with the iPhones (such as airpods, pen, etc.). However, Apple
may see a decline due to the high cost of the iPhones itself. It is also my opinion that the
launching of new products too quickly could assist in this as well. It seems like they make
it impossible to 'keep up with the new trends' aside from affordability. The product I have
selected is electrical cars. The electrical car has just finished the first stage of the product
life cycle and is now in the second stage. It has already been introduced into the market and
now it is in the growth stage. Companies like Tesla have been capitalizing a lot on the
growth of these cars for years to entice more customers to purchase. It is in the growth
stage because, though it is not new in the market, new innovations have been incorporated
over the years. This vehicle is made to remain in the growth stage as the new changes make
the product look new in the market. However, lately, I have been seeing a lot of these
vehicles on the road. Electric vehicles have become an admiration to many people.
Therefore, Tesla should ensure it is able to do more marketing and continue moving with
technology to ensure the vehicle remains relevant in the market. If other competitors come
in and make better electric vehicles, its sales will decrease, and people will stop admiring it
and go to the competitors. This will move the product to a maturity stage due to a decline
in sales and finally to the decline stage when people completely stop purchasing thus
causing a big loss to Tesla. In the growth stage, marketing campaigns should be conducted
to ensure the product remains relevant to the market and many customers are able to be
attracted to purchase the product. Tesla could invest a lot in marketing the product while
incorporating new technologies to increase its sales. If competitors come in, sales start
declining as the product will move to maturity stage and this means, more marketing should
also be done to ensure they out-compete their competitors by convincing the customers and
this will mean increased cost in marketing. However, in the decline stage, marketing may
not be able to revive the name of the product and the best way may be re-branding the
product and introducing it to the market as a new product.
References
Ahmadi, L., Young, S. B., Fowler, M., Fraser, R. A., & Achachlouei, M. A. (2017). A
cascaded life cycle: reuse of electric vehicle lithium-ion battery packs in energy storage
systems. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 22(1), 111-124.
Cerdas, F., Thiede, S., & Herrmann, C. (2018). Integrated computational life cycle
engineering—application to the case of electric vehicles. CIRP Annals, 67(1), 25-28.
