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Delete: A Design History of Computer Vapourware

Delete: A Design History of Computer Vapourware

by PaulAtkinson (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2013

    $12.77
Synopsis

While most historical accounts of the development of computer design focus on specific computers or manufacturers, examining the success stories of hardware and operating systems, Delete: A Design History of Computer Vapourware creates a completely new narrative by investigating the machines that didn't make it. Fascinating, full-colour images of computer designs, many of them previously unpublished, are accompanied by the hitherto untold stories of their planning and development, the pitfalls and successes in their creation, the market and competition at the time and the reasons why they never finally appeared for sale. Appealing both to a broad audience and to a more specialist one of designers and computer historians, Delete, with its unique collection of prototypes that never made it to the market, depicts a technological world that might have been.

$12.77

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 256
 Publisher: Berg Publishers
Published: 29 Aug 2013
ISBN 10: 0857853473
ISBN 13: 9780857853479
Book Overview: A unique history of unsuccessful computer design, Delete: A Design History of Computer Vapourware combines previously unpublished images of intriguing computer prototypes with the hitherto untold accounts of their failure to reach the market.

Media Reviews
[A] sumptuously photographed, elegantly laid-out volume... Atkinson's book relates in engaging detail the design history of some of the also ran products of the computing industry. It represents a carefully chosen slice through the landscape of next-big-things that never quite succeeded in fighting their way to the centre of the marketplace... The text is well written, amusing and perceptive - but for me the real treasure is in the book's excellent collection of photographs of computer hardware. Taken mostly from the original marketing material, it embodies all that is best about professional photography. Beautifully lit, tastefully styled and of the highest technical quality, the photographs are a testament to those practitioners who could make even the blandest putty-coloured box look interesting, powerful and oddly seductive. -- John Gilbey, Aberystwyth University * Times Higher Education *
Readers will find it exciting to linger for a while in a different time and place, when computing meant something very different from what it does today. -- Shreeharsh Kelkar * Journal of Design History *
[H]andsomely produced and full of fascinating color images, many of them quite rare ... I highly recommend this book. * Technology and Culture *
Paul Atkinson's DELETE is a veritable design museum of what might have been in computer products. The abandoned concepts and prototypes that serve as his well-chosen exhibits attest to the evolutionary nature of technological development, complete with failed experiments and extinct species from which much can still be learned. In all, Atkinson makes a compelling case that the word vaporware need not always be considered a pejorative. -- Henry Petroski, author of The Evolution of Useful Things and To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure and Professor at Duke Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, USA
DELETE is a stunning addition to the literature of the history of technology. This book is the first to engage with the important topics of industrial design and product failure in the computer industry, although its lessons have a much wider resonance. Deeply researched and lavishly illustrated in colour, it is a pleasure to read and to browse. -- Martin Campbell-Kelly, emeritus professor of computer science, Warwick University, UK
For Delete: A Design History of Computer Vapourware, Professor Paul Atkinson brings together his extensive knowledge of design practice and design history.He has an eye for exploring new and important narratives and its one of my favourite books for 2013. -- Catherine McDermott, Professor at Kingston University, London
Author Bio
Paul Atkinson is Professor of Design and Design History at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He is associate editor of The Design Journal and author of Computer (2010).