Train tracks shrouded in fog. Photo courtesy of
vsz.
According to Wikipedia, vaporware is "a term used to
describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a
developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge
after having well exceeded the period of development time that was
initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development
cycle of a similar product." Every year, the tech industry gets us
journalists all wound up about its new products, so we in turn wind you
up, but a lot of them don't make it to market; hence the term
vaporware. Wired has been handing out its Vaporware Awards for eleven
years; you can see its 2008 list here.
My
thoughts? While the recently released Home virtual chat room for
Playstation 3 is certainly deserving of criticism, its inclusion on the
list violates the spirit of the Vaporware Awards. After all, if a
released product's beta status were enough to make it eligible,
shouldn't Gmail (yup, still officially in beta) get a Lifetime
Achievement Award? Other entries, like the Zap-X all-electric SUV (#7),
GPS-maker Garmin's Nuvifone mobile phone (#5) and Blizzard's real-time
strategy game StarCraft II (#4) are all worthy of the honor. As for the
#1 choice--the twelve-years-in-development videogame Duke Nukem Forever
(most games are completed in 12-36 months)--all I can say is, hail to
the king.
On a more serious note, if I'd had a vote, I would have found a place for Toshiba and Canon's SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Displays) flat screen television technology. Imagine a large TV with the vivid colors and deep blacks of your old 4 by 3 TVs, but only as deep as a plasma televison--while being cheaper than plasma and LCD to boot. That was the promise of SED when Toshiba demonstrated it at the 2006 Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. My fellow journalists and I were blown away, and since then, nada, thanks in part to a lawsuit over patent rights. Now that the lawsuit has been resolved in Canon's favor, I'm hoping that SED sets will finally make it to market next year so that you can see for yourself.
