List of vaporware

This page is an incomplete list of known examples of vaporware, in alphabetical order by product name:

List of vaporware

Hardware

RED Scarlet - 3K digital film-like modular movie camera under $3K, and recording 120 fps in the same quality as similarly sized DSLR's take still, with the original release date 2009. May NOW be released 2010, invoking Scarlet fever amongst indie movie makers. The initial promise "3K for $3K" was scrapped as new features were added and expenses rose. The minimum price for a usable product will NOW be $4750 for a camera with one, single, irremovable fixed lense (as in solid), a Red Volt battery with 40-60 min battery time, a Compact Flash port with 10-15 min recording time to a 16GB CF card, added with a few hours processing time of the Red Raw footage using a modern CPU. For better and more practical features - like interchangeable lenses, RED Brick with a few hours battery time, HDD/SSD storage and realtime processing of Red RAW footage with the Red Rocket PCI card - the initial cost of a Scarlet will at least be doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. Founder of Red Digital Cinema Camera Company is James Jannard, also founder of the sunglass company Oakley, Inc. Camera featured as 3rd in Wired.com's list "Vaporware 2009: Inhale the Fail" - http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/vaporware-2009-inhale-the-fail/ Question is if it will also be featured in Wired.com's 2010 list - if so, it will probably take 1st place. All the above may be subject to change after NAB 2010, April.
Action Gamemaster - a handheld device designed by Active Enterprises^[1]
L600 - a Linux-based game console/computer produced by Indrema
Phantom - a console gaming system developed by Infinium Labs^[2]

Games

Duke Nukem Forever - announced in 1997 and went on to be a six-time winner of Wired's Vaporware Award and a winner of their Lifetime Vaporware Achievement. After thirteen years in development, the developer 3D Realms shut down May 6, 2009.^[3]^[4]
StarCraft: Ghost - a third-person shooter based on the StarCraft universe by Blizzard has been "postponed indefinitely" after five years of development.^[5]

Software

Ovation - An integrated software package for DOS that was announced by Ovation Technologies in 1983. Written about in many computer magazines at the time, Ovation was never released.^[6]

Standards and specifications

Secure Digital Music Initiative^[7]

Other

Vantive's Lawsuit in the late 90s^[8]

Surfaced vaporware

Products which once were considered to be Vaporware which eventually surfaced after a prolonged time:

3G ^[9]
Bluetooth ^[10]
Daikatana ^[2]
Diablo II ^[2]
Internet Explorer 7 ^[2]
Melodyne editor - Also known as Melodyne DNA . Audio manipulation software by Celemony. Released on November 16, 2009.^[11]
Microsoft Windows Vista (then, "Windows Code Name 'Longhorn'")^[2]
Return to Dark Castle - A game for the Apple Macintosh "under development" since 1996, released in 2008 after several changes in ownership.
Windows 2000 ^[12]^[13]
Warcraft III ^[10]^[14]
Team Fortress 2^[2] was announced in 1999 and took 8 years to be released.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess ^[2]
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - Originally announced in 2001, the game experienced numerous delays^[15]. Beta builds of the final product have been distributed to numerous game review sites ^[16]. On March 3, 2007, THQ announced that the game had gone gold and was released on March 20, 2007, though it was leaked three days earlier.
Stonekeep began development in late-1990 with a projected development of nine months. The development continued to drag on until it was released in November 1995.
Project Xanadu - A hypertext content delivery system, postulated prior to the advent of the World Wide Web ^[17], source code was released in 1999 and eventually XanaduSpace 1.0 released in 2007 ^[18]
Apple Inc. iPad, a Tablet PC^[19]^[20], rumoured since 2005^[21] Apple announced the iPad in January 2010, to be released March 2010.

References

^ http://wayofthegeek.org/2007/10/gotta-love-vaporware/
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Vaporware '99: The 'Winners'". Wired. 2000. Retrieved 2007-10-31. The last year of the last decade before 2000 has come and gone, but the Vaporware 1999 "winners" are still a dream to some, and a nightmare to others. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ McEntegart, Jane (2009-05-06). "Report: Duke Nukem Developer Shuts Down". Tom's Hardware.
^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8037688.stm
^ Blizzard Postpones StarCraft: Ghost Indefinitely, GameSpy March 24, 2006 (retrieved March 25, 2006)
^ "Famous Vaporware Products". BYTE. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
^ http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2002/04/52163
^ Vantine Corporation securities litigation
^ http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/news/2002/03/50855
^ ^a ^b "Vaporware 2000: Missing Inaction". Wired. 2001. Retrieved 2007-10-31. The bona fide beginning of the new millennium is almost upon us, but some things never change: The tech industry continues to whip up excitement by promising amazing new technologies, only to crush our spirits by delaying, postponing, pushing back or otherwise derailing the arrival of said goods -- sometimes indefinitely. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=products_editor&L=1
^ "Vaporware 2002: Tech up in Smoke?". Wired. 2003. Retrieved 2007-10-31. As 2002 ends, there is a lot of unfinished business in various corners of the tech world. We are referring, of course, to vaporware: hot, must-have products promised but never delivered. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ "Vaporware 1998: Windows NT Wins". Wired. 1999. Retrieved 2007-10-31. Each December, Wired News petitions its readers for the year's most egregious examples of vaporware. This time last year, our research team was busily running down broken promises, empty hype, and slipping ship-dates all over the technology kingdom. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ "Vaporware 2001: Empty Promises". Wired. 2002. Retrieved 2007-10-31. Whatever you like to call it -- the New Economy, the Dot-Com Economy, the Clinton Years -- one thing is now clear about the period of prosperity that began in the mid-'90s and was snuffed out early last year. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ http://pc.ign.com/articles/701/701364p1.html
^ First impressions - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Eurogamer
^ http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.06/xanadu.html
^ http://www.pcworld.com/article/145351-5/the_top_15_vaporware_products_of_all_time.html
^ http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2009/12/29/enough-about-the-apple-tabletislateiguidevaporware-already/
^ http://www.docstoc.com/docs/21028238/Apple-Predictions-for-2010-iPhone-on-Multiple-Carriers-iSlate-Beatles
^ http://www.engadget.com/2005/05/10/apples-patented-the-tablet-mac/

[1] ttp://wayofthegeek.org/2007/10/gotta-love-vaporware/

[wired1-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Vaporware '99: The 'Winners'". Wired. 2000. Retrieved 2007-10-31. The last year of the last decade before 2000 has come and gone, but the Vaporware 1999 "winners" are still a dream to some, and a nightmare to others. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

[3] McEntegart, Jane (2009-05-06). "Report: Duke Nukem Developer Shuts Down". Tom's Hardware.

[4] ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8037688.stm

[postpone-5] Blizzard Postpones StarCraft: Ghost Indefinitely, GameSpy March 24, 2006 (retrieved March 25, 2006)

[byte-6] "Famous Vaporware Products". BYTE. Retrieved 2007-10-31.

[7] ttp://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2002/04/52163

[8] Vantine Corporation securities litigation

[9] ttp://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/news/2002/03/50855

[wired2-10] "Vaporware 2000: Missing Inaction". Wired. 2001. Retrieved 2007-10-31. The bona fide beginning of the new millennium is almost upon us, but some things never change: The tech industry continues to whip up excitement by promising amazing new technologies, only to crush our spirits by delaying, postponing, pushing back or otherwise derailing the arrival of said goods -- sometimes indefinitely. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

[11] ttp://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=products_editor&L=1

[wired4-12] "Vaporware 2002: Tech up in Smoke?". Wired. 2003. Retrieved 2007-10-31. As 2002 ends, there is a lot of unfinished business in various corners of the tech world. We are referring, of course, to vaporware: hot, must-have products promised but never delivered. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

[wired5-13] "Vaporware 1998: Windows NT Wins". Wired. 1999. Retrieved 2007-10-31. Each December, Wired News petitions its readers for the year's most egregious examples of vaporware. This time last year, our research team was busily running down broken promises, empty hype, and slipping ship-dates all over the technology kingdom. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

[wired3-14] "Vaporware 2001: Empty Promises". Wired. 2002. Retrieved 2007-10-31. Whatever you like to call it -- the New Economy, the Dot-Com Economy, the Clinton Years -- one thing is now clear about the period of prosperity that began in the mid-'90s and was snuffed out early last year. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

[15] ttp://pc.ign.com/articles/701/701364p1.html

[16] First impressions - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Eurogamer

[17] ttp://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.06/xanadu.html

[18] ttp://www.pcworld.com/article/145351-5/the_top_15_vaporware_products_of_all_time.html

[19] ttp://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2009/12/29/enough-about-the-apple-tabletislateiguidevaporware-already/

[20] ttp://www.docstoc.com/docs/21028238/Apple-Predictions-for-2010-iPhone-on-Multiple-Carriers-iSlate-Beatles

[21] ttp://www.engadget.com/2005/05/10/apples-patented-the-tablet-mac/

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