Technology Life Expectancy

Hardware

The life expectancy (LE) of computer hardware depends on the

nature of the hardware. For example, the PC technology is changing the fastest,

and therefore, it seems to have the shortest life expectancy, while higher-end

systems, such as Unix workstations, mini-computers and mainframe computers, have

longer lives.

A computer system’s LE is often determined by the amount

and speed of innovation incorporated into the product. For a PC-class system,

the LE may be relatively short, since newer technologies are being introduced at

a rapid pace. It is common for today’s PC vendors to introduce new products or

product bundles every two to four months. To obtain this level of product

release dynamics, the change in one product generation to the next will be minor

or evolutionary, like changes in chip speed, or speed and size of component

parts. Major technological changes or innovations like that in chip technology

or internal buses take a longer time, and therefore, there are larger time

intervals between introductions of such products. A good example could be that

of the time taken between the launch of the PCs running on Intel 80486 chips and

those on Pentium-category chips. Vendors of Unix workstations, mini-computers

and mainframe computers typically introduce products at a slower pace and often

incorporate more technological innovations.

The class of hardware also determines how long the vendor will support a

product. A PC hardware vendor will typically support products for only a short

period, whereas other classes of hardware like Unix workstations, mini-computers

and mainframe computers will be supported for longer periods.

Software

The time intervals between major versions’ introductions

are often longer in case of software products. While companies usually upgrade

the operating systems every 18 months and sometimes even annually as in case of

Microsoft, high-end application software typically have upgrades every 12 to 24

months. Minor software upgrades and patches are, however, provided throughout

the course of a product’s life. Also, these minor upgrades usually occur more

frequently in the early part of the software product’s life and less

frequently or not at all in the last phase of a product’s existence.

Software life expectancy is further complicated, as for some

classes of software the vendor actually supports multiple versions of the

product. This is particularly true of operating system and high-end application

software like the DBMS software from Oracle, Sybase, IBM and Informix. It is

common for these software to be supported by the vendor for a period of 12 to 24

months after the introduction of a new release. Vendor support for these older

software releases also include patch releases on reported problems.

For less critical or low-end applications, product releases may occur every

six months and the vendor support for older products may terminate with the new

version’s introduction. It is common among personal productivity application

software vendors to only support the current version of the software.