Technology plays a dominant role in fostering the economic growth of nations and enhancing their industrial competitiveness. Several theories, models and approaches of measurement of technological changes have been discussed in the literature. A knowledge-based economy stands on a strong foundation of the manufacturing economy. The machine tool industry is a key contributor to the manufacturing sector. The industry has seen a substantial transformation in the past few decades in terms of technology advancement, adoption, diffusion, and management. With increasing demand from user sectors, technological advancement and cost competitiveness has led to the wide acceptance of CNC machines. Although, India stands 12th in production and 8th in the consumption of machine tools in the world (Gardner Business Survey 2017). India’s share in the global machine tool production is only about 1%. Indian machine tools industry has lacked behind in the adoption of advanced technological capabilities, meeting domestic and export market demands and price competition. Analysis of technical characteristics of a product determines a firm's technology competitiveness. The present study aims to utilise multivariate statistical techniques to identify technology evolutionary trends of machine tool (MT) technologies (here: machining centers) and analyse the competitive technology strategy of firms. The broad theme of this study is to identify (a) means to investigate historical trends of technical characteristics, (b) link between product features and firms’ technology strategy and (c) impact of patenting strategy on firm’s performance. Principal component analysis (PCA) is utilised to investigate historical trends in technical characteristics of the product models introduced. Furthermore, the study also provides a current snapshot of foreign and homegrown machine tools manufacturing firms. The study will aid MT manufacturers to prioritise a certain set of technical characteristics to develop machining technologies.