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Vaporware - the Tech That Never Was

Posted by Zonk on from the beautiful-vapour-hanging-in-the-air dept.

An anonymous reader writes "CNet has published an incredibly detailed look at the most critical examples of vaporware ever seen in the tech sector. We're familiar with Wired's yearly round-ups, but this decades-long retrospective look at the most promising of all technologies that never saw the light of day, holds some fascinating technology I've never even heard of, including the wonderfully-named three-dimensional atomic holographic optical data storage nanotechnology. 'Continual delays, setbacks and excuses are the calling cards of a product that becomes vapourware. Windows Vista ran the risk of joining the club, and the terrific multiplayer first-person shooter Team Fortress 2 was in production for almost a decade before it was released in 2007. Devoted TF fans feared it would become a distinguished entrant in the who's who of vapourware. You might say Google Mail is in the running, having been in beta since 2004.'"

10 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Google Mail is not Vaporware by romonster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You might say Google Mail is in the running, having been in beta since 2004 According to this Wikipedia article (or, more specifically, its sources), Google Mail has 10s of millions of users. I'd hardly call that Vaporware.
    1. Re:Google Mail is not Vaporware by gilesjuk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Indeed, being out there and being in beta isn't Vaporware. The term typically means it has been announced by a company's marketing department despite no work having been done on it.

      Usually it's a way of confusing the consumer into sitting on the fence.

      So for example people is about to buy an mp3 player from (for example) Creative, so Microsoft then announces a super improved Zune which probably hasn't even been designed yet. The design team knock up a nice 3D representation in a graphics application and release it.

  2. How many by Kelz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    times does C-net need to run the same story per year? It seems whenever they remember something else they come out with a new list (like once per month).

  3. Oh, come on. GMail? by ZorbaTHut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do people say GMail is vaporware?

    I mean, you can use it. You've been able to use it for years. It's on the web, it's easily accessible, it wouldn't surprise me if it's used by millions of people.

    Google's calling it "beta" because they don't think it's worthy of a non-beta release. That's [i]all it means[/i]. Google has higher standards for "non-beta" than other companies do, apparently - they're still adding major features and I suspect that's at least partially related to its beta status.

    Why does it mean so much to have it not be called beta anymore? Because, I mean, if that one word really causes you so much mental anguish, I bet I could provide a Greasemonkey script to get rid of it.

    Google's decided it's not finished. I'm willing to defer to their judgement. Honestly, it's a nice change from "feature-complete 1.0 software" that crashes every five minutes.

    --
    Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
  4. Political Vapourware by davejenkins · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Politicians make their living off of the same vapourware every election-- and for some inexplicable reason, the masses keep buying into it. How about a short list?
    1. Balanced Budget
    2. Peace in our time
    3. Raise education standards
    4. Economic security

    At first glance, this may seem off-topic, but I would submit that vapourware is inevitable to anyone who is asking for money/power and promises to give you something later. Companies release press 'early' (vapourware) in the hopes of bouying their stock price or raising VC money; politicians promise the moon to get campaign contributions (VC money). Same thing.

    --

    davejenkins.com |

    1. Re:Political Vapourware by srussell · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Politicians make their living off of the same vapourware every election-- and for some inexplicable reason, the masses keep buying into it. How about a short list?
      Well, some of these things have been achieved. They just aren't perpetual.

      1. Balanced Budget
      Done, during the Clinton administration. Subsequently undone.

      2. Peace in our time
      We've had presidencies during which the US hasn't been in any open conflict with any other country. But this really depends on what you mean by "peace." Are we at peace if, somewhere in the country, some guy is beating his wife? Are we at peace if we're not at war with anybody, but somebody, somewhere, is? Are we at peace if we have an embargo on some other country?

      3. Raise education standards
      You could argue that the US is more educated than it ever has been. More people have advanced degrees than ever have, and more poor people have degrees. Public K12 education certainly hasn't been improving overall in a long while, but again, it depends on what standards you're measuring -- what's your definition of education standards?

      4. Economic security
      The last time that happened was when social security was instituted. I don't even know what this would look like -- everybody gets a guaranteed minimum wage? Everybody is guaranteed a job? The stock market only goes up? What?

      --- SER

  5. Re:Google Mail by Thelasko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Gmail made a brilliant move by always calling their service a beta release. This way, when your email never arrives, or your personal information gets stolen, it's not their fault... it's just a beta release! Google can always argue that if you want reliable and secure communications, you should use a service that is a final release.

    Disclaimer for Google fans: I'm not saying Gmail is not stable or reliable, just stating one possible business strategy.

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  6. Re:Without even looking... by dorix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Since when has FTL space travel ever been "promised"?

  7. paranoia by dj245 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Call me paranoid, but calling most of their products "beta" seems to me like an sneaky way of avoiding any sort of liability whatsoever for any problems that might arise. I'm not saying Google *should* be liable, but I think these beta tags have more to do with legal reasons than technical ones.

    --
    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
  8. Re:Old vaporware by russotto · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The increased price of oil should make this more viable. It may not have worked out at $40 a barrel, but right now if they can produce it at $80 a barrel it would be a marketable source. It's tough referring to some of this as vaporware - most of them are good ideas, but economics and technology haven't quite caught up with them yet.


    But that has been claimed about these technologies for decades. Commercial fusion is always 20 years off. Oil shale production needs oil at $40-$50 barrel. When these points are reached, either the goalposts are moved or LOOK, OVER THERE, A DISTRACTION. Hence, vaporware.

    And I wouldn't consider the Roomba to be a household robot. It's hard automation, much like a dishwasher. The fact that it moves doesn't change that. A robot which could do the dishes or laundry without special help (e.g. RFID dishes), that's more along the lines of what I'm thinking of.