0 a computer program that is advertised but is not yet or is never made available --
1 → vapourware --
Development on the game, begun in 1996, was notoriously protracted, and the game was often labeled vaporware.
The practice was not called vaporware at the time, but publications have since used the word to refer specifically to it.
At times, vendors are criticized for intentionally producing vaporware in order to keep customers from switching to competitive products that offer more features.
The name is derived from the word "vaporware", which refers to announced but non-existent software.
Most software products are not released on time, according to researchers who studied the causes and effects of vaporware in 2001.
A good example is "software", formed by analogy with "hardware"; other analogous neologisms such as "firmware" and "vaporware" have followed.
The company repeatedly pushed the release date forward, gaining a reputation as vaporware or hoax.
Vaporware, sometimes synonymous with vaportalk in the 1980s, has no single definition.
