If your job is to build new technology products, is there a difference between a technology being dead and the users of those technologies not adopting any new

If your job is to build new technology products, is there a difference between a technology being dead and the users of those technologies not adopting any new technology? I don't think so. Saying Windows 98 is dead is just short hand for saying users of Windows 98 are never going to be my customers so I don't need to build a Win98 compliant desktop version of my product.