The technology life-cycle describes the commercial gain of a product through the expense of research and development phase, and the financial return during its "vital life". Some technologies, such as steel, paper or cement manufacturing, have a long lifespan whilst in other cases, such as electronic or pharmaceutical products, the lifespan may be quite short. The TLC associated with a product or technological service is different from product life-cycle (PLC) dealt with in product life-cycle management. The latter is concerned with the life of a product in the marketplace with respect to timing of introduction, marketing measures, and business costs. The technology underlying the product (for example, that of a uniquely flavored tea) may be quite marginal but the process of creating and managing its life as a branded product will be very different. The technology life cycle is concerned with the time and cost of developing the technology, the timeline of recovering cost, and modes of making the technology yield a profit proportionate to the costs and risks involved. The TLC may, further, be protected during its cycle with patents and trademarks seeking to lengthen the cycle and to maximize the profit from it. The "product" of the technology may just be a commodity such as the polyethylene plastic or a sophisticated product like the ICs used in a smartphone. The development of a competitive product or process can have a major effect on the lifespan of the technology, making it shorter. Equally, the loss of intellectual property rights through litigation or loss of its secret elements (if any) through leakages also work to reduce a technology's lifespan. Thus, it is apparent that the management of the TLC is an important aspect of technology development. In the simplest formulation, innovation can be thought of as being composed of research, development, demonstration, and deployment. Most new technologies follow a similar technology maturity lifecycle describing the technological maturity of a product. This is not similar to a product life cycle, but applies to an entire technology, or a generation of a technology. Technology adoption is the most common phenomenon driving the evolution of industries along the industry lifecycle. After expanding new uses of resources they end with exhausting the efficiency of those processes, producing gains that are first easier and larger over time then exhaustingly more difficult, as the technology matures. The four phases of the technology life-cycle The TLC may be seen as composed of four phases: S-curve The shape of the technology lifecycle is often referred to as S-curve. Technology perception dynamics There is usually technology hype at the introduction of any new technology, but only after some time has passed can it be judged as mere hype or justified true acclaim. Because of the logistic curve nature of technology adoption, it is difficult to see in the early stages whether the hype is excessive. The two errors commonly committed in the early stages of a technology's development are: fitting an exponential curve to the first part of the growth curve, and assuming eternal exponential growth fitting a linear curve to the first part of the growth curve, and assuming that take-up of the new technology is disappointing Similarly, in the later stages, the opposite mistakes can be made relating to the possibilities of technology maturity and market saturation. Technology adoption typically occurs in an S curve, as modelled in diffusion of innovations theory. This is because customers respond to new products in different ways. Diffusion of innovations theory, pioneered by Everett Rogers, posits that people have different levels of readiness for adopting new innovations and that the characteristics of a product affect overall adoption. Rogers classified individuals into five groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. In terms of the S curve, innovators occupy 2.5%, early adopters 13.5%, early majority 34%, late majority 34%, and laggards 16%. Stages From a layman's perspective, the technological maturity can be broken down into five distinct stages. Bleeding edge - any technology that shows high potential but hasn't demonstrated its value or settled down into any kind of consensus. Early adopters may win big, or may be stuck with a white elephant. Leading edge - a technology that has proven itself in the marketplace but is still new enough that it may be difficult to find knowledgeable personnel to implement or support it. State of the art - when everyone agrees that a particular technology is the right solution. Attribution: Article text available under CC-BY-SA sourced from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_life_cycleCreative Commons image sourced from http://wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tecnology_Life_Cycle.png

• published: 18 Sep 2013
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