....regarding "vaporware" -- is really the same as a "dry test" in direct marketing....

Though the intention is different!

"Vaporware" is where a company claims that it has developed a product, or has almost finished developing a product, in order to stop consumers from buying a competing product, or to stop competitors from entering the market....

An example of vaporware is how Microsoft made many announcements that Windows was "coming soon" -- 2 years before Windows actually appeared -- to stop people from buying the competing Apple Macintosh.

A "dry test" is where a marketer will advertise a product they haven't yet created, in order to see if there is a demand. If the demand is high enough, they'll create the product....

An example of a dry test is what Joe Karbo did when he wrote "The Lazy Man's Way to Riches".... He wrote the ad first, ran the ad, and saw if it got orders. When the orders flooded in, he frantically wrote the book!

They are effectively the same thing -- an announcement of an available product, which does not actually exist yet.

Though their purposes are different....

- Dien