What is Vapourware?

20-11-2006

I came across the term vapourware several years ago when I was working on a large project. A media release was issued stating that the next version of our product would allow our product suite to integrate with certain popular third party products. This would be a great advantage over competitive products in the marketplace. If it existed.

In reality the product improvements only existed on paper as a good idea. We did however have every intention of coming up with the goods, that is if someone bought the product and requested the new version and stated that they wanted those particular improvements.

What tended to happen is a software or systems analyst came up with some product proposals or suggestions for ways of improving the current product offering to make it more enticing for new customers. These proposals are then reviewed and a roadmap is drawn up. What happens next is that this roadmap is released and customers or shareholders ask when these new features will be made available. Estimates are given, revised and at some point in time a media release or product overview exists listing these features. The fact that the proposal is still only in draft form is irrelevant. The point is that the product is not yet ready and we have not committed any resources as yet to work on the proposal, saving time and money, but still have something to offer potential new customers. The improvements are still vapourware even if some design work has been carried out or some early code has been written.

Eventually there will be one of two outcomes. A customer decides to purchase the product and so some rapid application development takes place in order to bring the vapourware to life. Or, no one wants the new feature and it remains vapourware and is eventually dropped from the features list and forgotten.

Reply to this blog entry.