Yet such friendly conditions were paired with big expectations for profits and rapid product upgrades.

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The company then releases a quick succession of product upgrades, forming hypotheses and conducting experiments with each new version along the way.

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As we have seen with Apple, consumers are becoming much more savvy about product upgrades and the associated timing, and purchasing behavior is affected.

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The moves point to Apple getting workaday product upgrades out of the way before Jobs' keynote at the annual Macworld show in San Francisco next week.

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For the past three product upgrades, iPhone unit sales have jumped 41%, 66% and 117% as consumers wait to see what is coming out to make a purchase decision.

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The average revenue per store was down year over year, albeit in a tougher economic environment and absent significant product introductions or upgrades.

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The downside is that as newsflow increases about potential new product releases and upgrades, demand is likely to be frozen in advance, particularly for the iPhone and iPad.

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In the wake of Intel's Pentium III launch, a slew of product announcements and upgrades have ensued, upping the ante on the desktop question of whether to buy now or wait for the maximum-performance chip set.

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Ford expects to maintain its current market share of approximately 16.5% in the U.S., and considering the current competitive landscape in the automotive industry, the company will have to continue with the product momentum by introducing new models and making upgrades to its existing models.

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