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Icon-April-00-14-P070-REV1 This spread VAPOURWARE Sun modular computer (1990 ), designed by Paul Bradley and Jochen Backs have had no impact. Ideas for products, rather than products themselves can have influence far beyond that expected. Some of the hard evidence UNMADE in the form of actual prototypes has long been consigned to the dustbin of history, leaving photographs sometimes it doesn’t exist at all. In other words, as the only record. Rumours the term describes a deliberate attempt to surface with no supporting mislead the buying public. evidence, and finding that But the failure of an announced product evidence has often entailed to reach the market isn’t always a fraud. By the arduous detective work. time a product is ready for market, more than A history of vapourware one company has found that the technology provides an entertaining The history of computing isn’t a triumphal progress from Charles apourware is a term already exists. view of an alternate world, Babbage’s Difference Engine to the new MacBook Pro. In his book for computer products There are also cases where an internal of products that could have about vapourware, Paul Atkinson looks at designs that were too V that a company project was common knowledge throughout been available, or others announces, but doesn’t put a large corporation, as well as to business that were just fantasy. Was ahead of their time, ones that didn’t work, or were even fictional into production. This might partners, and even third party software a housewife ever meant seem a straightforward developers and technical journalists. Often, to store recipes in a 16-bit words: Paul Atkinson concept, but arguments over companies demonstrated working prototypes computer in 1969? The stories what counts as “vapourware” to invited audiences, but made no formal behind individual examples have continued for years. announcement when they later dropped of vapourware confuse the There are several reasons the product. idea of progress over time and a prototype may not have gone In this respect, they are all vapourware provide an alternative history into production, the most – tantalising glimpses of what might have of computing, It’s a story of common of which is that a been had circumstances been different. The missed opportunities over manufacturer or software comparable terms “hardware” and “software” the decades, from mainframes house keeps on announcing are not pejorative, and neither are the terms and minicomputers, to the imminent launch of a new “firmware”, “shareware” or ‘freeware’. The personal computers and product which is a long way fact that these designs haven’t been tested mobile computing, up to the IMAGE: PAUL BRADLEY PAUL IMAGE: from actual production; in the marketplace doesn’t mean that they present day. 01 XEROX NOTETAKER (1978) 04 COMPAQ DUALWORLDS NOTEBOOK (2001) Alan Kay had invented the concept of an open-source notebook-slim computer in Compaq developed the Dualworlds design 1968, in the form of the Xerox Dynabook, to solve the problems of poor ergonomics but ten years later, Xerox still hadn’t produced associated with laptop and notebook computer a portable computer that used existing use and to remove any need for a desktop PC technology. In 1976, Kay and his team began and laptop computer to be used in the same developing a computer that could “fit inside desk space. The solution cleverly combined the a suitcase”, basing it on the Alto computer, a forms so that in one configuration it looked just research model, with a graphic interface and like any other notebook computer, yet it could an early mouse – this is the model that Steve be altered to be identical to a full desktop Jobs saw during a visit to Xerox PARC in 1979. PC arrangement with a separate mouse and The final design had 128kb of memory (which keyboard. The design was finished to a pre- was a lot at the time), and an ethernet board production stage just before HP took over to connect it to other computers. The downside Compaq. The project was cancelled before was that its components came to $20,000 and it could go into production. it weighed 20kg in a carrying case. 05 APPLE FIGARO (1991) The Figaro, a flat tablet computer with an injection- moulded case and a LCD touch-sensitive screen, was an early attempt at pen computing. It was the pet project of John Scully, then the E CEO of Apple, who imagined HIV “a portable, voice-activated C computer that could search AR the Internet for information”. BM I Apple’s in-house design team 02 DRAGON PROFESSIONAL (1983) came up with a concept model; ZZA/ A S it looked like a book that could S Dragon, a subsidiary of Mettoy, a Welsh toy A fold in half, had no keyboard C M company, rushed its first 32kb microcomputer I and included a camera for J into the market after the launch of the Sinclair ; videoconferencing and a N G Spectrum. The beige casing and built-in sloping I built-in carry handle. By 1989, S keyboard echoed the Apple II – and the cases E Apple had technical answers, D were moulded by the same injection-moulding O but didn’t know what the machines that made its parent company’s toys. GAR device should look like. U Unlike the Apple II the Dragon was stocked in I After commissioning several G ; Boots the Chemist – and demand was so high N designers, including Sottsass, G I that the company couldn’t keep up. After the S it opted for Giugiaro Design’s involvement of new investors, Dragon made solution (pictured). But in E DE E IV a new, upgraded, version for business users. T the end the product was A The 64kb model’s lack of a cooling fan led to N considered “not Apple enough”. ; ; S overheating and often cut out after an hour’s U use. One more model, the Dragon Professional, C was marketed, but didn’t have time to be made MAR before the company went bankrupt in 1983. 03 HONEYWELL N MA I KITCHEN COMPUTER E (1969) N ; H AG N Why would a department A V store, Neiman Marcus, feature A C E a computer for $10,600 in I its catalogue and what was N BER a housewife to do with a / 16-bit minicomputer, in the UM 06 IBM YELLOW BIRD (1976) E kitchen anyway? The price S MU included the cost of a two-week Y The Yellow Bird was an in-house attempt training session for the user R to persuade IBM’s management that the – in entering recipes into the ISTO computer giant needed to think about personal H computer, and the slogan read: R computing. Tom Hardy, who designed the SCAMP E “If she can only cook as well as T model in 1973, came up with a simpler, lower PU Honeywell can compute.” The M cost, concept three years later. The Yellow Bird truth is that the item was a was meant to plug in to a TV set, which would /CO fantasy offering in the spirit S become the display, the processor unit was in the of the 1960 catalogue’s “His ARD back of the casing, and the data was stored in the CH and Hers” airplanes, price I same kind of magnetic tape cartridge used by the R tag: $176,000. K IBM 5100 portable computer. It also had a small built-in printer, just like a cashier’s till (or BERG’s MAR Little Printer). And still the IBM executive board was unconvinced – in the same year that Steve IMAGES: IMAGES: Jobs and Steve Wozniak began selling the Apple I. 069 VAPOURWARE 07 IBM SCAMP (1973) The prototype of the IBM SCAMP is now in the Smithsonian Museum, where it is described as 11 PHONEBOOK (1997-2007) “the world’s first single-use computer” – ie a personal computer, rather than a mainframe The Phonebook was an early attempt, originally accessed by many users. The designer, Tom by Psion Computers, to combine the best Hardy, made a design model of the SCAMP features of an electronic organiser with a (Special Computer APL Machine Portable), so mobile phone, with a QWERTY keyboard that executives could show potential customers large enough to type on easily. The designer the new concept. The large black slot on the Martin Riddiford and his backers patented the front was an acoustic coupler for a handset to design, intending to license the design to a mobile connect to the phone network. The flat-panel, phone manufacturer. They got as far as making touch keyboard was much more advanced than a working prototype but none of the phone IBM keyboards of the time, but the project companies they pitched to signed on. The patent never advanced beyond this mock-up. lapsed and the arrival of smartphones made the 08 XEROX DYNABOOK 10 SUN MODULAR COMPUTER (1990) idea obsolete – although it still has benefits for (1968) people who like typing on their phone. Sun Microsystems made high-end computers When Alan Kay at Xerox and was a keen proponent of open computing. conceived of the Dynabook, It developed several open-source software the technology to realise it systems, including the cross-platform Java didn’t exist. (And Xerox’s programming language and the free OpenOffice notorious and complete lack suite of business software. However it was of interest in home computing unimpressed by Matrix Design’s proposal for didn’t help.) Forty-five years an injection-moulded desktop unit with hard later, the former Xerox Parc’s drive and disk drive and a casing consisting of computer scientist (later chief a series of expansion units edged with metal scientist at Atari) says that finned heat sinks.
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