1.0 INTRODUCTION
In business world, new product development is the complete process that bringing a new product to market. Companies with clear product development visions know what types of investments are required to maintain their market positions. As life cycles of new product generations become shorter, companies can ill afford to delay their product development activities. Product development has therefore become the centerpiece of today’s competitive strategies. Being first to market for next generation products is what makes companies like Intel and Microsoft success. Due to advance of technology, rapidly changes of the market situations and increase number of competitors, many electronic industries were realized the benefits engaging in the new product development process (NPD).
New product development process is defined as disciplined and defined set of tasks and steps that describe the normal means by which a company repetitively converts embryonic ideas into salable goods and services (Earle, 2004). NPD is divided into various categories (e.g. new-to-the-world products, new category entries, additions to product lined, product improvements and repositioning). There are extreme challenges, risk and uncertainty when a company involves in new product development as time and money spent are of no guarantees to success, therefore it is crucial for that new product process must respond the 3 unique inputs which are the right quality product, at the right time, and at the right cost. According to Crawford, five phases sequentially in the new product development process are 1) Opportunity Identification and Selection; 2) Concept Generation; 3) Concept/Project Evaluation; 4) Development; 5) Launch. Each of the steps will be discussed ...