[eli]

I hardly think that's a recent development. Plenty of technology has been sold that way for a long time.

[GFischer]

It even has its own term, "Vaporware":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware

"Vaporware first implied intentional fraud when it was applied to the Ovation office suite in 1983; the suite's demonstration was well received by the press, but the product was later revealed to have never existed."