I suspect some sectors demand a shorter product lifetime than others. For example, if a system uses parts from three different, mostly orthogonal standards, and these standards are updated on average every three years, then after one year of life, one of the standards in the system has advanced beyond the state of the piece of equipment. If the manufacturer releases a piece of equipment with a part in version 3.3, of a standard, when version 4.0 of the standard has already been released, then he knows he is susceptible to early obsolescence. Thus he wants a part for the latest version of the standard as soon as possible after the standard is released. It follows then that the semiconductor company's part has a lifetime dictated by this demand by his equipment manufacturing customer.
I am looking for which sectors tend to have short lived product lives. This may be due to quickly evolving standards, multiple standards in one part, or other reasons.