[mr.miyagi]

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,128 ... tw=rss.TOP

Year after year after year, tech companies promise spectacular products that twinkle and shine in demos and press releases, but slowly begin to fade and dim as the promised release dates near.

Welcome to the shadowy, spectral world of vaporware, a product purgatory where goods are promised, but not delivered.

Last year's No. 3, the elusive games-on-demand console Phantom is this year's most vaporous product. Alienware's Video Array is a high-end bit of hardware and software that allows video cards to run in parallel, dramatically boosting performance. Or so they say. Alienware promised the technology in Q4 2004. Needless to say, it's still off-planet. In October, a Hawaiian company, Maui X-Stream, rocked the tech world with news of CherryOS. After withdrawing the software due to server crashes, Maui X-Stream promised CherryOS would be reborn on Nov. 25; when that failed to materialize, Q1 2005. We're still waiting. Forever is the very epitome of vaporware. It probably will never, ever ship, so Wired News has removed it from the running, despite many votes from readers.

Now in its eighth year, Wired News' annual Vaporware Awards celebrate all the wonderful gewgaws of 2004 that sadly never saw the light of day. And 2004 was a very good year for vaporware. A vintage year, indeed.

Not only were there plenty of vaporous products floating about -- several companies are fast heading for the hallowed halls of vaporware fame.

Companies like Valve, TiVo and 3D Realms Entertainment have been nominated year after year, sometimes for the same elusive product, sometimes for different wares. But one thing doesn't change: These tardy firms continue to over-promise and under-deliver.
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