vaporware

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The Word of the Day for January 21 is:

vaporware   \VAY-per-wair\   noun
     : a computer-related product that has been widely 
advertised but has not and may never become available

Example sentence:
      Experts in the computer industry suspected that the 
vaporware being pushed by the software company was still full 
of bugs and would never hit the market.

Did you know?
      The practice of marketing products before they are 
available for sale is common to many industries, but especially 
the computer industry, where technological advancement is rapid 
and competition cutthroat. Unforeseen glitches occasionally 
result in the marketing of products that ultimately never see 
the light of day. Since the 1980s, such phantom computer 
products have been referred to by the word "vaporware," which 
is modeled after familiar computer terms such as "software" 
and "hardware." The word plays on the humorous notion 
of "vapors" being equated with rumors surrounding the 
development of a product that appears to be on its way but that 
never actually materializes.