n. A much-hyped software product that currently exists only as a series of slides in a sales or marketing presentation.
2001
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.
1989 (earliest)
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.
'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.'