Our modern society, under the dominant influence of technology, lives according to the dictates of permanent social and economic acceleration, as is shown in almost all social areas: new knowledge is already old hat tomorrow, while in our private lives we are under pressure to recognize and take advantage of every opportunity life gives us. In the economic sector, the globalization process sets the new tempo which controls our work lives. So of course this trend can also be seen in the development of new products and services as well as in the steady reduction in the length of their life cycles in recent years. A drastic reduction in development times can be observed especially in the ICT sector and in particular in the online and Web 2.0 environment. Google Maps is a clear example of this process: the ­complete application was developed and successfully launched on the market in only eight months.

Innovation leadership increasingly short-lived  

This clear tendency towards a shortening of product and ­service life cycles can be seen in the most widely differing industries and is not limited to the traditionally fast-living software ­sector. The reasons for this development, aside from the generally ­accelerated technological progress, include above all the steadily increasing competitive pressures from the continuing process of globalization, the intense pressure from the capital markets demanding substantial growth rates from companies, and accelerated imitation by direct competitors, retailers’ own labels, or no-frills producers. But the lessened loyalty of workers to their employers and the concomitant possibility to simply buy up the competition’s intellectual property as well as the increased willingness of consumers to try something new are also contributing factors.   

All of these effects accumulate to create a situation in which companies have less and less time to exploit the technological leadership they have achieved and to earn the premium necessary to refinance investments. The ICT industry in particular is more and more frequently confronted with simple products or services of the Internet and Web 2.0 sector which cast doubt on the viability of complete business models of established enterprises. One such case was the development and spread of Voice over IP services on the Internet, leading to a dramatic decline in classic telephony sales.