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PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE The different stages that a product traverses over the course of its life from initial availability (birth) to eventual unavailability (death). The key stages are development, introduction, growth, maturity, saturation, and decline. The product life cycle, represented by an S-shaped curve, is an adaptation of the biological life cycle and is common to the study of marketing. It is also important in the analysis of innovation and economic instability. In addition to biological growth, comparable S-shaped life cycles are found in short-run production of a firm, the growth of a person's income, the acquisition of knowledge, and the development of a civilization.
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