slideware

(SLYD.wayr)

n.

A much-hyped software product that currently exists only as a series of slides in a sales or marketing presentation.

Example Citation:

"All this may sound like a description of 'slideware' — those glowing overhead presentations given by software salesmen that rarely deliver what they seem to promise."

— "The beast of complexity," The Economist, April 14, 2001

Earliest Citation:

Local networks based on the Open Systems Interconnection model are still little more than 'slideware,' but the leading network operating system vendors are promising to deliver real products as early as next year.

— Susan Breidenbach, "LAN vendors devise plans to support OSI," Network World, June 19, 1989

Notes:

Slideware is one of those slippery terms whose origin seems to drift back in time the more you research it. It finally settled in 1989, as shown by the earliest citation.

The more popular and more venerable synonym for slideware is vaporware (or vapourware for those loyal to the Commonwealth). I managed to trace this term back to 1984:

'Companies are announcing but not delivering products,' Black stated. 'We have hardware [and] software, and now we have vaporware that disappears when you try to find it.'

— Paul Korzeniowski, "Micro-mainframe links not yet seen satisfying users," Computerworld, April 9, 1984

Related Words:

beerware

careware

coasterware

fritterware

herdware

heroinware

malware

marketecture

missionware

retroware

spyware

shovelware

treeware

triple delivery

Category:

Programming and Software