But with the rise of crowdfunding and “direct to consumer” sales models like this, it has increasingly been used to refer to hardware.
And, for what it is worth, I remember similar discussions in probably the early/mid 00s (maybe even late 90s?) with regard to the kind of stuff you would see in magazines. Which we now understand to mostly be proof of concept PR stunts by tech companies. Use them to “plant a flag in the ground” so that you can search for investors and accuse the competition of copying you.
Historically, probably
But with the rise of crowdfunding and “direct to consumer” sales models like this, it has increasingly been used to refer to hardware.
And, for what it is worth, I remember similar discussions in probably the early/mid 00s (maybe even late 90s?) with regard to the kind of stuff you would see in magazines. Which we now understand to mostly be proof of concept PR stunts by tech companies. Use them to “plant a flag in the ground” so that you can search for investors and accuse the competition of copying you.