shelfware

From shelf + -ware.

• Audio (US):

  (file)

shelfware (uncountable) (software)

1. A piece of software that has never been used at all since its creation.
2. A piece of software created for the sole purpose of being immediately shelved.
3. Software purchased but not used.

• 2006, Merrill R Chapman, In search of stupidity: over 20 years of high-tech marketing disasters, 2nd edition, Apress, pages 277–8:

  Purchasers of these software products soon began to derisively refer to them as shelfware. This unflattering designation arose from the fact that once a company bought one of these mega-sized, multi-module pieces of code and attempted to implement part of it, the expense, difficulty, and cost of doing so often led to the rest of the product being shoved on a shelf and buried.

• 1994 Silver, L and Marin, I : "Software Use and Disuse: From Shelfware to Improved Software Utilization" in Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting Proceedings, Special Sessions, pp. 975-975(1)

  All too often, software that has been purchased is not used. A term has emerged to describe this phenomenon, "shelfware."