One of the key determinants of success for today’s high-technology companies is product strategy—and this guide continues to be the only book on product strategy written specifically for the 21st century high-tech industry. More than 250 examples from technological leaders including IBM, Compaq, and Apple—plus a new focus on growth strategies and on Internet businesses—define how high-tech companies can use product strategy and product platform strategy for competitiveness, profitability, and growth in the Internet age.

Product strategy is the most important determinant of success for high-technology companies. It defines the products on which a company bases its business and shapes the way those products will win or lose against the competition. Yet even in high-technology companies, very few executives understand how to conceive and shape successful product strategy. Product Strategy for High-Technology Companies shows how to formulate product strategies that lead to successful products. This comprehensive guide covers everything high-tech companies should consider in developing their strategies, including timing, technological change, globalization, product differentiation, cost and price, and contingency planning, as well as marketing and financial considerations. Product Strategy for High-Technology Companies offers more than strategic guidance. Through more than 250 examples, you'll discover how product strategy has been used at such companies as Microsoft, IBM, Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, and many others. Through their trials, errors, and successes, and through the book's expert insights, you'll have a complete framework for building your own innovative, competitive product strategy.

One of the key determinants of success for today’s high-technology companies is product strategy—and this guide continues to be the only book on product strategy written specifically for the 21st century high-tech industry. More than 250 examples from technological leaders including IBM, Compaq, and Apple—plus a new focus on growth strategies and on Internet businesses—define how high-tech companies can use product strategy and product platform strategy for competitiveness, profitability, and growth in the Internet age.

Marketing is civilized warfare. And as high-tech products become increasingly standardized—practically identical, from the customer's point of view—it is marketing that spells life or death for new devices or entire firms. In a book that is as fascinating as it is pragmatic, William H. Davidow, a legend in Silicon Valley, where he was described as "the driving force behind the micro processor explosion," tells how to fight the marketing battle in the intensely competitive world of high-tech companies—and win. Blunt, pithy, and knowledgeable, Davidow draws on his successful marketing experience at Intel Corporation to create a complete program for marketing victory. He drives home the basics, such as how to go head-on against the competition; how to "plan products, not devices"; how to give products a "soul"; and how to engineer promotions, market internationally, motivate salespeople, and rally distributors. Above all, he demonstrates the critical importance of servicing and supporting customers. Total customer satisfaction, Davidow makes clear, must be every high-tech marketer's ultimate goal. The only comprehensive marketing strategy book by an insider, Marketing High Technology looks behind the scenes at industry-shaking clashes involving Apple and IBM, Visicorp and Lotus, Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor. He recounts his own involvement in Crush, Intel's innovative marketing offensive against Motorola, to demonstrate, step-by-step, how it became an industry prototype for a winning high-tech campaign. Davidow clearly spells out sixteen principles which increase the effectiveness of marketing programs. From examples as diverse as a Rolling Stones concert and a microprocessor chip, he defines a true "product." He analyzes and explains in new ways the strategic importance of distribution as it relates to market sector, pricing, and the pitfalls it entails. He challenges some traditional marketing theory and provides unique and important insights developed from over twenty years in the high-tech field. From an all-encompassing philosophy that great marketing is a crusade requiring total commitment, to a careful study of the cost of attacking a competitor, this book is an essential tool for survival in today's high-risk, fast- changing, and very lucrative high-tech arena.

In order for High Technology (HT) companies to tackle contemporary demanding market challenges, they frequently deploy time-reduction strategies with respect to product launch. Marketing of technology related products – and especially cutting edge ones – involves a complex and multidimensional bundle of specific and unique characteristics, such as the complexity of products, the intensity of the competition, confusion and/ or fear of adoption among consumers, fast pacing changes in the external environment. The very nature of the interrelations that evolve as part of the dynamic process of strategy formulation contributes further to the formulation of a very challenging environment which is described as tumultuous, volatile and turbulent. These specific features, qualities and characteristics constitute the core of the innate need for an integrated approach that requires and depends on the cooperation and coordination of specific functional competencies. This book employs a systemic approach that accommodates the integration of specialized departmental capabilities as a fundamental prerequisite and a cornerstone for the successful navigation of high-tech organizations in their extremely competitive environments. It provides a solid and extant context of compact and consistent cognitive background that is specific to the HT strategic marketing field, and a strategic tool that utilizes, relies and is built on the turbulent environment of HT rather than just overlooking, avoiding or ignoring it, and that assumes a proactive point of view, capitalizing on characteristics specific to this field, through the provision of a strategic managerial and marketing model that is overlaid onto a reliably assessed foundation of dynamic qualities, with a long-term orientation and scope, albeit one that would be easy to apply and which will generate immediate results.

Excerpt from New Product Strategy in Small High Technology Firms This paper is an exploratory probe into new product strategy for small high technology firms. The motivation behind it grew from the author's participation in a study of Massachusetts Route 128 high technology companies, performed under the auspices of the Center for Policy Alternatives and the Swedish Board for Technical Development. In discussing the products made by these entrepreneurs, and in seeking to evaluate both the similarities and differences between the de facto new product strategies pursued by them, it became evident that although the firms had followed markedly different strategies in deciding what to make next, there was little available research methodology to get a handle on these differences. The work may. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Since 1994 when I first published the concepts of product-platform strategy, Product Strategy for High Technology Companies (McGraw Hill, 2001) has become a mainstay of strategy in many industries, particularly for high-technology companies. Some of the most successful companies implemented a product-platform strategy, and many of those who didn't failed as a result. In this new book, as well as others in this series, I expand and update these concepts, adding new lessons learned in the past decade, and illustrate them with current examples. Since there are several new concepts and so many great examples, I've decided to update Product Strategy through a series of new books, each focused on a particular product strategy topic. This first book, Understanding and Applying Product-Platform Strategy, starts with the core underlying concepts of platform strategy, based on workshops I have been giving around the world over the last few years. There are several new concepts that I added or expanded on in this book. The concept of platform layers expands on original concept of elements in complex platforms. As product platforms evolved to be more complex, organizing them into layers became logical. Platform robustness is introduced to address the issue that not all platforms are created equal, and this builds on the concept of vectors of differentiation in my original book. Competitive advantage can come from having a more robust product-platform strategy than a competitor. The issues around a platform as part of an ecosystem are now more relevant and discussed in more detail. This has become increasingly important, as more companies have implemented platform strategies that are linked with others. Also as more companies have leveraged product-platforms into new markets, the concepts of derivative platforms have become more important. So we will examine derivative platforms in more detail.