cannibalization

Marketing borrows this term from hardware, where its meaning is similar to the original one, in which a person or animal eats the flesh of another member of its species. In hardware, cannibalization is removing a part from one machine (for example, an airplane, a car, or a computer) to replace a bad part in another machine. Typically, the part removed is functioning, the system it's removed from is not, and the part's addition will contribute to the functioning of the newly refurbished system.

Read more about cannibalization: - BNET presents "The Cannibal's Dilemma: Deciding Whether To Sacrifice Your Product Can Be The Toughest Strategy Of All." (Registration required.)

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