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OVERVIEW:To optimize product cycle time, producers of high-tech products long ago began marketing before they had fully specified the product. Now, they may no longer finalize the physical specification at all. We can thus proclaim, “The product is dead,” which implies the substitution of expert service for features, information, and capabilities that used to be intrinsic to the tangible product. Companies are finding that dispensing with the idea of product remains one of the few ways—if not the only way—of compressing the technology cycle still further. By adapting to customers' needs and by reducing information overload, a comprehensive package of tangible goods, service and information can serve customers better than a traditional product.
Phillips et al. (1999) studied this question.