Are companies still looking for new product at such a bad time?

At such a bad time, retailers need outstanding product more than ever. They might see their existing product decline in sales, they would need something better to stimulate buyers to buy.
Of course better can have many different means. If a product can save user money, great. Save time, not as attractive as saving money at this moment; but also great... that's why companies still looking for new product, maybe more than ever. However, they also have to be stingy on development budget. The lower the cost the better. That's why EE likes Holly's bed skirt shoe storage so much. The development cost is really close to nothing.
So it's good time and also a bad time. They are looking harder but they also examining harder.

My friend, who is a channel guy at consumer electronic field, told me that existing merchant are either dying off or just enduring. Some of them can survive 2-3 years like this if without much activity. Some may close their eyes but most of them still keep their eyes open for opportunity as always. However they won't make any move unless they see a real exciting opportunity.

So if you see market being very quiet now, that's because they are all in this looking mode. Small opportunity won't interesting them anymore.