Vaporware Stories

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Although only the surface of the media from time to time, "vaporware" is a term used to label a lot of products, from software to cars and talking about it can prove really interesting venture. If this sounds like rocket science to you, then let's introduce today's stories properly - "vaporware" is a derogatory term used to label software or hardware products announced and before the release, which was then not appear on the market after numerous delays. Sometimes, it just happens, but it can also be done intentionally, as we are going to see next ...

originally used by magazine reviewers in the early 1980s, "vaporware," became notorious with a bunch of products pushed forward by optimistic developers, Apple Macintosh as a word processor FullWrite Professional announced the beginning of the Ann Arbor Softworks in January 1987 will be delivered in April, but actually delivered at the end of 1988, or "Vapordisc," fully format CD Tandy Corporation announced several years before CD-R format, which finished as the shelves a few years later due to technical limitations.

While announcing the products you know that you will not be able to publish on time or at all, can not be something illegal when you use this artificially push up prices of company shares, or force customers to wait for the product and avoid the one released by the competition , all this could lead to government investigations or trials. In any case, no such case I can think of right now, except for those highly anticipated hardware products that are delayed more and more, such as CPU and graphics card (I will not give any names here), but the good part is normally arrive on the market, and this is what is truly important.

When we talk about games, it is well known titles such as Half-Life, Half-Life 2 or prey were delayed over and over, initially identified as "vaporware." Fortunately, they redeemed themselves, which was released at the end, and receiving positive reviews, but probably the most famous "vaporware" game, as I like to call, because there has been more than ten years since its initial announcement and the game community is still waiting ... but all that comes out is a little screenshot and gameplay video, now!

All in all, "vaporware" is something to laugh at, but it is certainly something very sad for those who work in companies losing ground because of such products has announced that it does not materialize. Of course, this is not the norm, because Windows Vista, formerly known as Windows Longhorn, and delayed numerous times, Microsoft did not drive down as it should have happened with some other companies in the same case ...