Startups Promise the Future But It Doesn't Always Arrive

Here in Silicon Valley, the tech capital of the world, effectively nobody gets their lunch by robot or by drone. Nobody I know rides to work in a self-driving car. Only gadget review columnists seem to have seen a Facebook Portal in person.

There is a class of what you might call technically real but functionally nonexistent technology products that generate a lot of ink but never seem to make it in the real world. For every iPhone that’s enshrined in the tech hardware canon, there are countless other products that don't take off because no one wants them, or they can’t deliver on their promise.