Abstract: Reduction of the new product development(NPD) cycle time and improvements in product performance rate become strategic objectives for many technology-driven firms. In this paper, a model is developed to study the trandeoff between them under cannibalization strategy. Optimal time-to-market and duration of the overlapping stage conncerned with cannibalization rate are obtained. The analysis of our model shows that the overlapping stage reduces the time-to-market to some extent. The existing product with high performance contributes to the rduction of time to market, but not obviously; cannibalization rate wakens the ralation between the productivity of the overlapping stage and the optimal time-to-market, and the optimal duration of the overlapping stage respectively. These results modify the three conclusions drawn by Calantone. Two new conclusions are derived from our model. They are (1) the bigger the cannibalization rate, the more profit the firm obtains. (2) the less the duration of the overlapping stage, the longer the time-to-market, and the shorter the windows of opportunity becomes, so the cannibalization should be increased to bring more profit for the firm.

Key words: new product development, cannibalization strategy, time-to-market