The product life cycle theory and product line management: The case of mobile phones

This paper applies the product life cycle theory to the issue of product line management with two goals in mind: 1) to understand how product line management evolves over the life of an industry and 2) to compare Klepper's model (1986), which emphasizes economies of scale, with the traditional model of the product life cycle, which emphasizes dominant designs. We find that Klepper's model of the product life cycle theory in combination with the concept of product line management provides a better explanation for the evolution of competition in the mobile phone industry than the traditional product life cycle model. We use Uzumeri and Sanderson's classifications of product variety and change (Uzumeri, 1995) to generalize from the industry case.