In the world of technology, demand vs supply has a new dimension, to explain I need to share what I understand it was in the past.
Years ago, either driven by demand or by supply, new applications / software came into the market by means of CDs, DVDs (even floppy disks). Supplies were heavily dependent on how many CDs or DVDs could be burnt, let’s say quantity driven.
Nowadays, applications or software are bought over the internet as downloadable formats. I don’t think anyone still burns a CD or a DVD which says “windows 11” or “AutoCAD”. The constraints of producing a CD or a DVD have been totally eliminated, supply has no issues what so ever.
Due to the ease of availability I feel more and more people tend to “try” it. (Free trial for the first one month drives this quite well, companies can even offer this because they haven’t spent a penny on burning a CD or a DVD or shipping it for that matter). For now, let’s consider the product is good (anyone who tries to sell their product of course tries) so a trial copy becomes a subscription (one time or pay monthly). A consumer constantly expects new and better features, a supplier wants to have market dominance for which one has to meet the expectations of a consumer. When one doesn’t have to burn CDs or DVDs and ship them, releasing newer versions with negligible modifications is quite easy (focus is on the word modifications and not negligible). After 10 versions, the product might have changed completely (an email client might have read all your emails and converted itself into an analytic tool and suggest you to visit a mental hospital or immigrate to Lebanon). Suppliers have higher possibilities to meet the demands of a consumer (stability / features / usability) this is quality driven.
End to end, in the tech world, demand vs supply is quality driven more than quantity driven due to the ease of supply. Can this be achieved in a non tech environment?