Wired News 2006 Vaporware Awards

silentounce writes "Wired News has released the winners of its 9th annual Wired News Vaporware Awards. I won't list any of them in the summary because I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise. They have some interesting entries, one that is more a concept of a product than an actual product. I'm not sure how you can claim something is vaporware if it hasn't even been given a specific name or a developer yet, but apparently they think they can. "

Vaporware

[phoenixwade]

Is it just me? or is listing "Duke Nukem Forever" as number one yet again becoming a tired old joke?

A380 is not vaporware...

[IdleTime]

It is already flying. Just because it is not in commercial use yet, doesn't make it vapor ware. Duke Nukem is.

Airbus A380

[Timesprout]

Vapour? Have you seen the size of the fucking thing? Anyway its been built, tested and approved for flight. Yes there are difficulties but they will possibly make it a white elephant, but certainly not vapourware.

Vaporware?

[El Lobo]

Hmmm... the word vaporware was used to describe a product that NEVER WILL be relleased and was just speculation... Those lists are describing products that often are late. Last year both Vista and IE7 made the list and guess what? They are out!

So many of those products may be "lateware" but not vaporware. Hell, even Duke Nukem may be out some day AFAIK.

Duke Nukem vs. Windows Vista for MIA Award...

[__aaclcg7560]

I can't believe that Duke Nukem Forever knocked Windows Vista for the MIA award. For five years we were promised all these wonderful technologies that would be part of Windows Vista and the only thing that's coming out next month is a Windows XP upgrade.

Re:A380 is not vaporware...

[Anonymous Coward]

By that definition, Duke Nukem is not vaporware either. After 10 years, the game has to be somewhat playable, but it is not yet ready for commercial use - much like the A380.

Windows Media Player for Linux?

[acroyear]

I'm still waiting on that one... ...of course it doesn't really matter much since iTunes is in control of the audio-for-sale and video-for-sale market these days. DIVx-based AVIs are becoming the default for "free" video content, particularly from Europe.

As I wrote before here, WMP for Linux was meant as a strategic move to scare content owners away from the open-sourcing of Real Networks' player and codecs, by promising WMP-based DRM for the Linux market. It seemed to work, but rather than go to WMP (which had technical issues as shown by early BootlegTV downloads from the DGM record label (King Crimson)), they held off until iTunes set the new DRM standard. M$'s been behind ever since.

Re:Vaporware?

[arth1]

Hmmm... the word vaporware was used to describe a product that NEVER WILL be relleased and was just speculation... Those lists are describing products that often are late. Last year both Vista and IE7 made the list and guess what? They are out!

Due to the lack of clairvoyance in the media industry, it's hard to tell beforehand which products will never be released. So the working definition of vaporware is a product that was promised a certain time, but wasn't release. Many delayed products get canned, some get the name transferred to a new product, and some actually come out, delayed. Which one it will be, we won't know until it happens. In the mean time, we call the products "vaporware", because they failed to materialise as promised.

Please stop...

[thedarb]

Please stop posting Wired stories. We all already read Wired on a daily basis, just like we read Slashdot. Why post it here days after we've already read it? Just please stop doing it already.

Vapored

[fm6]

Yes there's a prototype for the A380. There's also a demo for Spore. But until Airbus figures out how to insert those 300 miles of wiring, the prototype is meaningless. Without any wiring, a jetliner is just a ... I want to say "big doorstop" but somehow that's not right.

You do sort of have a point. "Vaporware" originally described products that never got beyond the Breathless Announcement, and were usually created solely to stifle interest in competing products. Only one or two products on the Wired list fit that description. We really need a separate term for products that are really, honestly under development, but are way behind schedule. Deathmarchware?

I'm profoundly unsurprised that Spore is in trouble. IMHO, Will Wright is grossly overrated as a game designer. All his games pretend to be simulations, but the "realities" they pretend to implement are absurdly simplistic. (Why is every Sim a bisexual OJ?) People do enjoy playing them, but only because they enjoy fantasizing about their imaginary worlds. The game pretends to bring simulation to the fantasy, but really just provide fancy graphics. Judging from the videos I've seen, Spore isn't any different. And for a game that pretends to model the evolution of wholes species, that just isn't enough.

Re:As always, you-know-who is #1

[Bieeanda]

I just love that they claim that Prey enjoyed 'overwhelming success'. Given that it was almost as late, little more than silly gameplay gimmicks, and far, far shorter than the designers swore, I'd call it 'middling' at best.

Re:A380 is not vaporware...

[Richard_at_work]

You're correct. I was confusing the hydrogen tank explosion as having happened during the scheduled 1999 test flight. Replace X-33 with the DC-X, however, and you have the same result.

Again, I wouldnt class the DC-X as vapourware either - it flew, it was a prototype and it was cancelled by NASA. McDonald Douglas made no extravagant claims about its operation or production, it was cancelled by NASA after the prototype crashed and it was deemed a replacement would put the project overbudget.

Production delays are still delays. Until the first fully operational craft is delivered to a customer, it is still vaporware. I have no doubt that it will happen eventually, but that doesn't stop the vapor phase from occurring.

And I still disagree with you - classing an aircraft that has received its type certification from the two most stringent aviation bodies in the world as vapourware is pushing the term somewhat.

If you are going to classify the A380 as vapourware, then you automatically need to classify every single aircraft project announced as vapourware as well, because they all fit the wikipedia definition in one form or another. And this includes Boeings 787 and 747-8 series, Bombardiers Cseries stretches, and numerous others.

Vapourware is another term that has lost its meaning on Slashdot.

Wrong Aircraft

[AK Marc]

The Airbus is on the list but not the flying car? Moller's Skycar [moller.com] has been 2 years away from completed testing for the past 10+ years and has been in development for somewhere around 40 years. If any aircraft deserves to be on the list, it's that one.

Re:Vaporware

[Captain Splendid]

Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of tired old jokes?

That's pretty much a capsule definition of the internet!

Re:A380

[Blakey Rat]

The Spruce Goose flew, also. (Well, kindof... it proved it could take off, at least.) But neither airliner was delivered to any customers, therefore, they are both vaporware.