Editing Vaporware (section)

==Etymology==
"Vaporware", sometimes synonymous with "vaportalk" in the 1980s,<ref name=Shea1984/> has no single definition. It is generally used to describe a hardware or software product that has been announced, but that the developer is unlikely to release any time soon, if ever.<ref name=BRJ2001-3>[[#refBRJ|Bayus; Jain; Rao (2001)]] p. 3.</ref><ref name=PrenLang1994-11>[[#refPrenLang|Prentice; Langmore]] (1994) p. 11.</ref>

The first reported use of the word was in 1982 by an engineer at the computer software company [[Microsoft]].<ref name=Flynn1995-1>[[#refFlynn|Flynn (1995)]], p. 1.</ref> [[Ann Winblad]], president of [[Open Systems Accounting Software]], wanted to know if Microsoft planned to stop developing its [[Xenix]] [[operating system]] as some of Open System's products depended on it. She asked two Microsoft software engineers, John Ulett and Mark Ursino, who confirmed that development of Xenix had stopped. "One of them told me, 'Basically, it's vaporware'," she later said. Winblad compared the word to the idea of "selling smoke", implying Microsoft was selling a product it would soon not support.<ref name=Shea1984>[[#refShea|Shea (1984)]].</ref>

[[File:Esther Dyson Monaco Media Forum.jpg|thumb|left|Influential writer Esther Dyson (pictured here in 2008) popularized the term "vaporware" in her November 1983 issue of ''RELease 1.0''.]]

Winblad described the word to influential computer expert [[Esther Dyson]],<ref name=Shea1984/> who published it for the first time in her monthly newsletter ''RELease 1.0''. In an article titled "Vaporware" in the November 1983 issue of ''RELease 1.0'', Dyson defined the word as "good ideas incompletely implemented". She described three software products shown at [[COMDEX]] in Las Vegas that year with bombastic advertisements. She stated that demonstrations of the "purported revolutions, breakthroughs and new generations" at the exhibition did not meet those claims.<ref name=BRJ2001-3/><ref name=dyson1983>[[#refDyson|Dyson (1983)]], pp. –6.</ref>

The practice existed before Winblad's account. In a January 1982 review of the new [[IBM Personal Computer]], ''[[BYTE]]'' favorably noted that IBM "refused to acknowledge the existence of any product that is not ready to be put on dealers' shelves tomorrow. Although this is frustrating at times, it is a refreshing change from some companies' practice of announcing a product even before its design is finished".<ref name="williams198201">{{cite news|url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1982-01/1982_01_BYTE_07-01_The_IBM_Personal_Computer#page/n37/mode/2up |title=A Closer Look at the IBM Personal Computer |work=[[BYTE]] |date=January 1982 |access-date=19 October 2013 |author=Williams, Gregg |pages=36 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809042358/http://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1982-01/1982_01_BYTE_07-01_The_IBM_Personal_Computer |archive-date=9 August 2014 }}</ref> When discussing [[Coleco]]'s delay in releasing the [[Coleco Adam|Adam]], ''[[Creative Computing]]'' in March 1984 stated that the company "did not invent the common practice of debuting products before they actually exist. In microcomputers, to do so otherwise would be to break with a veritable tradition".<ref name="anderson198403">{{cite news|url=https://archive.org/stream/creativecomputing-1984-03/Creative_Computing_v10_n03_1984_Mar#page/n65/mode/2up |title=Coleco |work=Creative Computing |date=March 1984 |access-date=6 February 2015 |author=Anderson, John J. |pages=65–66 |author-link=John J. Anderson |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150405172428/https://archive.org/stream/creativecomputing-1984-03/Creative_Computing_v10_n03_1984_Mar |archive-date=5 April 2015 }}</ref> Recalling that a [[Lanier Business Products]] [[word processor (electronic device)|word processor]] became available immediately after its announcement, ''[[Creative Computing]]'' wrote that year, "If we were to re-enact that scene today, I wouldn't get my machine for at least six months, maybe a year".<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Blanchard |first=Dale |date=July 1984 |title=Getting into word processing; let's talk business. |url=https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n7/187_Getting_into_word_process.php |access-date=2025-03-15 |magazine=Creative Computing |page=187}}</ref>

After Dyson's article, the word "vaporware" became popular among writers in the personal computer software industry as a way to describe products they believed took too long to be released after their first announcement.<ref name=Flynn1995-1/> ''[[InfoWorld]]'' magazine editor Stewart Alsop helped popularize its use by giving [[Bill Gates]], then-CEO of Microsoft, with a ''Golden Vaporware'' award for Microsoft releasing [[Windows 1.0x|Windows]] in 1985, 18 months late. Alsop presented it to Gates at a celebration for the release while the song "[[The Impossible Dream (The Quest)|The Impossible Dream]]" played in the background.<ref>Garud (1997); Ichbiah cited in [[#refBRJ|Bayus; Jain; Rao (2001)]] p. 3.</ref><ref name=BRJ2001->[[#refBRJ|Bayus; Jain; Rao (2001)]], p. 5.</ref>

"Vaporware" took another meaning when it was used to describe a product that did not exist. A new company named [[Ovation Technologies]] announced its [[Productivity software#Office suite|office suite]] Ovation in 1983.<ref name=Flynn1995-2/> The company invested in an advertising campaign that promoted Ovation as a "great innovation", and showed a demonstration of the program at computer trade shows.<ref name=Flynn1995-1/><ref name=jenkins1998/> The demonstration was well received by writers in the press, was featured in a cover story for an industry magazine, and reportedly created anticipation among potential customers.<ref name=jenkins1998>[[#refJenkins|Jenkins (1998)]].</ref> Executives later revealed that Ovation never existed. The company created the fake demonstration in an unsuccessful attempt to raise money to finish their product,<ref name=Flynn1995-2>[[#refFlynn|Flynn (1995)]], p. 2.</ref> and is "widely considered the mother of all vaporware," according to Laurie Flynn of ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name=Flynn1995-1/>

Use of the term spread beyond the computer industry. ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazine's [[Allan Sloan]] described the manipulation of stocks by [[Yahoo!]] and [[Amazon (company)|Amazon.com]] as "financial vaporware" in 1997.<ref name=allan1997>[[#refSloan|Sloan]] (1997)</ref> ''[[Popular Science]]'' magazine uses a scale ranging from "vaporware" to "bet on it" to describe release dates of new consumer electronics.<ref>{{cite journal|access-date=2010-04-15|title=What's New|journal=Popular Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eVMLO1GM9uQC&q=vaporware&pg=PA15|date=1 March 2007|page=15|issn=0161-7370}}</ref> Car manufacturer [[General Motors]]' plans to develop and sell an electric car were called vaporware by an advocacy group in 2008<ref>{{cite news|first=Ken |last=Bersinger |date=5 April 2008 |title=Road for electric car makers full of potholes |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=2010-04-19 |url=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-garage5apr05,0,626587.story |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327113807/http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-garage5apr05%2C0%2C626587.story |archive-date=27 March 2010 }}</ref> and ''[[Car and Driver]]'' magazine retroactively described the [[Vector W8]] supercar as vaporware in 2017.<ref name ="ShittyVectors">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-story-of-when-we-mostly-tested-a-vector-w8-feature|title=The Time We Tested a Vector W8 Highlights Why We Test Cars in the First Place|date=2 December 2017|last=Csere|first=Csaba|magazine=Car and Driver}}</ref>