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Delete: a design history of computer vapourware

The concept for this book emerged from primary research for ‘A Bitter Pill to Swallow: The Rise and Fall of the Tablet Computer’, Design Issues, 24(4), 2008: 3-25, during which numerous examples were unearthed of computers announced by manufacturers but never sold [‘vapourware’]. Realising this subject had not yet been explored, Atkinson searched archival material and interviewed designers about such projects on which they had worked.

The completed study develops the established argument, stating products that failed in the marketplace are important as they provide insights into the reception of design, by positing that products that never even made it to market are equally valid subjects of analysis, as they provide insights into the reception of ideas, inspire other designers and manufacturers, and raise the expectations of the buying public – frequently affecting the course of technological development itself. In doing so, the book reclaims the often-negative term ‘vapourware’ and expands it with a more nuanced and balanced definition.

An example emerging from this research was expanded into ‘The Curious Case of the Kitchen Computer: Products and Non-Products in Design History’, Journal of Design History, 23(2), 2010: 163-179, which has been cited in academic articles and referenced on Wikipedia pages for the ‘Honeywell 316 Computer’ and the ‘Home Computer’. A permanent link to the article appears on the Computer History Museum website at: http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/minicomputers/11/362. As an authority on this subject, Wired.com interviewed Atkinson, for an article that drew heavily on his primary research. http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/11/kitchen-computer.

A short article outlining the concept of ‘Vapourware’: ‘Ghost in the Machine’, Paperweight, 1(2), 2011: 7, led to Atkinson being interviewed for a 1 hr radio programme entitled ‘Ghosts’ for Resonance FM (Broadcast live 15 March, repeated 16 March 2013 and again on 5 September 2013: available at: https://soundcloud.com/paperweight-newspaper/paperweight-radio-ghosts ).