A common practice in the enterprise software industry (and beyond) is to announce products, make a lot of noise about it, but slowly roll it out in pieces over the coming quarters or never at all. This is called Vaporware and I’m starting to see small examples of this in the social media industry.
As a response, I’m going to start calling out vendors that do that. Why? it protects buyers from getting caught up in the hype of an announcement, flashy videos, and buzzword industry-changing definitions. I fill the space with enough buzzwords myself, there really isn’t any room left for vendors.
Graciously, I will list of vendors on this blog post that make big pronouncements without demonstrating their products, highlighting their vaporware. I encourage you to support this so we can establish a precedent in our space to announce and show products that are actually working –not just promised.
What say you, should we do such a list? I’ll need your help in calling them out, they’ll get a list similar to this one of brands that have been punk’d.
Update: Related and if social media vendors do announce, they should eat their own dogfood (or drink their own champagne, as I learned from my new friend Dana). I’m keeping PR folks busy.
Here are some requirements for vendors as they launch: On day of announcement they should be able to show a demo of their product. If it’s an enterprise product, or complicated, then show a video with it working. Consider using a customer reference or a test case to demonstrate how it’s been working in the past. I like what John Furrier said, that sometimes products are still getting the bugs worked out and that’s fine –but in any case, show that the product exists.
Good idea. Less early buzz may help the industry mature faster.
Vaporware announcements are insidious, but can’t be stopped. Calling out the vendors just gives them more airtime, and can play into their marketing strategy. Don’t reward behavior you want to eradicate.
Rhetorical question? I know that you know what to do. Kick butt & preserve sm’s efficacy as you best can.You the marshall.
I work for Oracle PR in the Asia-Pacific. Views here are my own. Yes, vaporware will creep into any rapidly expanding tech area, but see this as inevitable as technologies hit the ‘hype slope’ – absolutely the job of the industry watchers to keep the companies honest as the space matures and things coalesce and commoditize (recall heady days of business software just decade past, versus today). But announcement of a future vision or end-state doesn’t necessarily mean vaporware if the company in question is responsible enough not to wax lyrical till the right time. Call out those who are hyping irresponsibly.
Yes and I agree with Laura’s point plus it’ll be a good benchmark.
Excellent approach. This kind of filter is what we need to aid in transparency and allow real solutions to rise.
Go for it, I’ve been waiting for analysts to do something like that for a long time. I agree with Tom Cuniff that it makes sense to have the voting done as a community effort (it’s also more consistent with the spirit of social media.) Actually, I’d like to see new products across the board put through this filter, not just those that are tagged upfront as vaporware. I’d love to see an analyst come up with a good set of criteria to help frame the discussion around a product (or a space), then put the product out there and let people vote on where the product stands vis-a-vis the criteria.
This is about brand reliability and ultimately credibility. I’d be interested in seeing something akin to the Jenny Craig advertisements. You know the “before” and “after” examples where someone becomes half the man/woman they were 13 weeks prior? For social media vendors it could be as simple as 1) the promise (i.e. the feature, functionality and release date) vs. 2) the actual. Thanks for working to have social media remain true to one of its’ purposes (transparency).
Great idea! Like a lot of people have already said this is not an uncommon pratice in the software industry. But as we discussed at the Austin SMC Thursday night there seems to be a lot of hype in SM these days. I liked your guidance – focus on the business results.
James