Booz, Allen & Hamilton has identified six categories of new products

New-to-the-world product

New products that create an entirely new market 

New product lines

New products that allow a company to enter an established market for the first time

Additions to existing product lines

New products that supplement a company’s established product lines package sizes, flavors, and so on 

Improvements and revisions of existing products

New products that provide improved performance or greater perceived value and replace existing products

 Repositionings

Existing products that are targeted to new markets or market segments

 Cost reductions

New products that provide similar performance at lower cost Less than 10 percent of all new products are truly innovative and new to the world. These products involve the greatest cost and risk because they are new to both the company and the marketplace. Most new-product activity is devoted to improving existing products. At Sony, over 80 percent of new-product activity is undertaken to modify and improve existing Sony products