“Vaporware” are products that have not been released in the market and sometimes do not exist but they are advertised anyways to help generate publicity for a particular company. According to “Strategic Management of Technological Innovation” by Mellissa Schilling on page 80, she mentions how “by building the impression among customers that a product is ubiquitous, firms can prompt rapid adoption of a product when it is available.” One example of this is how Nintendo advertised Nintendo 64 well before it was ready to be released. In this instance Nintendo was successful in convincing many customers to wait until its new system was released and not go out and buy another product.
I think this is interesting though because this concept can work in both good and bad ways for a company. If they hold out on the product for too long they can lose almost all of their customers before the product is even released. Also there have been many different vaporware products that have been announced yet they never surface at all. An example of this is WinFS which is supposed to have been a new file system that was said to be released with Windows Vista when it was released but never did. Vaporware like this can help the company initially by promoting an image of innovation and advancement but if the products are not released on time, they can also lose the trust of their customers who are unable to gauge whether or not the next product from that company will actually be released. I think the only time vaporware is a good tool is if the company is positive that it is a project that they will be undertaking and not just an idea that is not even within their grasps yet.
Top 15 Vaporware Products
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