Vaporware by

Vaporware: An Expanded Equilibrium

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES: An Analysis of Vaporware and New Product Announcements

The software industry practice of announcing new products well in advance of actual market availability has led to allegations that firms are intentionally engaging in vaporware. The possible predatory and anti-competitive implications of this behavior recently surfaced in the antitrust case United States v. Microsoft Corporation. Taking the perspective that a new product announcement is a stra...

Vaporware: Product Pre-Announcements in a Duopoly with Network Effects

Pre-announcement of new products (still undergoing development) is an important practical and theoretical concern. While possible in any industry, it is particularly prominent in the IT markets, such as computer hardware and software. We specifically focus on announcements known as Vaporware – that is, products and services that are delivered after long delays or sometimes do not hit the market...

Product Introduction Strategies in the Age of Social Media

When an incumbent faces a new entrant with superior capabilities, it may preemptively announce (preannounce) its future product to avoid forfeiting users. The traditional focus of preannouncement literature has been on truth-telling and vaporware. In the age of social media, the proliferation of online discussion forums and social network usage leads to the formation of public opinions (signals...

XML, Databases, and Interoperability

The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and related technologies offer promise for (among other things) applying data management technology to documents, and also for providing a neutral syntax for interoperability among disparate systems. But like many new technologies, it has raised unrealistic expectations. We give an overview of XML and related standards, and offer opinions to help separate va...