Orphaned technology. Orphaned technology refers to computer technologies that have been abandoned by their original developers. As opposed to deprecation, which tends to be a gradual shift away from an older technology to newer technology, orphaned technology is usually abandoned immediately or with no direct replacement. Unlike abandonware, orphaned technology refers to both software and hardware and the practices around them.

Users of orphaned technologies must often make a choice continuing to use the technology, which may become harder to maintain over time, or switch to other supported technologies, possibly losing capabilities unique to the orphaned technology.

Reasoning 
While technology can be abandoned due to an unfavourable design or poor implementation, abandoning a technology can happen for a variety of reasons. There are instances where products are phased out of the market because they are no longer viable as business ventures, such as certain medical technologies.

Some orphaned technologies do not suffer complete abandonment or obsolescence. For instance, there is the case of IBM's Silicon Germanium (SiGe) technology, which is a program that produced an in situ doped alloy as a replacement for the conventional implantation step in silicon semiconductor bipolar process. The technology was previously orphaned but was continued again by a small team at IBM so that it emerged as a leading product in the high-volume communications marketplace.

Technologies orphaned due to failure on the part of their startup developers can be picked up by another investor. One example is Wink, an IoT technology orphaned when its parent company Quirky filed for bankruptcy. The platform, however, continued after it was purchased by another company, Flex.

Examples 
Some examples of orphaned technology include:
 Apple Lisa - 16/32-bit graphical computer
 Apple Newton PDA (Apple Newton) - tablet computer
 Apple Classic Mac OS - m68k and PowerPC operating system
 Coleco ADAM - 8-bit home computer
 DEC Alpha - 64-bit microprocessor
 Finale (scorewriter) music notation software developed by MakeMusic from 1988 until 2024
 HyperCard - hypermedia
 ICAD (KBE) - knowledge-based engineering
 Javelin Software - modeling and data analysis
 LISP machines - LISP oriented computers
 Mattel Aquarius
 Microsoft Bob - graphical helper
 Mosaic notation program - music notation application by Mark of the Unicorn
 Open Music System - Gibson
 OpenDoc - compound documents (Mac OS, OS/2)
 Poly-1 - parallel networked computer designed in New Zealand for use in education and training
 Prograph - visual programming system
 TI 99/4A - 16-bit home computer
 Windows 9x - x86 operating system

Symbolics Inc's operating systems, Genera and OpenGenera, were twice orphaned, as they were ported from LISP machines to computers using the Alpha 64-bit CPU.

User groups 
User groups often exist for specific orphaned technologies, such as The Hong Kong Newton User Group, Symbolics Lisp [Machines] Users' Group (now known as the Association of Lisp Users), and Newton Reference. The Save Sibelius group sprang into existence because Sibelius (scorewriter) users feared the application would be orphaned after its owners Avid Tech fired most of the development team, who were thereafter hired by Steinberg to develop the competing product, Dorico.

See also
 Orphan works
 Abandonware
 Planned obsolescence

References

 
Orphan works
Technological change
Information technology