We explored the market reaction to new IT product announcements by the hard drive manufacturing industry in relation to that industry's evolutionary cycle of innovation. In the short-term, there was no effect. In the long-term however, announcements made during an era of incremental technical change had more favorable reactions than announcements made during an era of fermentEXCEPTwhere those announcements represented an attempt to develop the emerging technology rather than further developing the existing dominant design.