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If we go through what we had with Google Mail or GMail and other Google apps, then we could say that public betas are important. However, not everyone believes its importance. Take the case of Apple - their beta program is limited to a select few, i.e., those who paid an annual subscription as a developer. In this day and age, I’d say that having a limited public beta, e.g., invite only access but free, is very important (it is better to open it up to everyone, of course) before you start deploying your app, or worse, charging for it!

Robert Scoble has pointed out that Apple is too secretive — after experiencing Apple’s MobileMe failures. Heck, even Apple’s friend, Walt Mossberg, cautioned against getting MobileMe. Maybe I am lucky (knock-on-wood) because MobileMe, so far, works as advertised. This is just an example and I am sure that others will find more instances where Apple failed because of being too secretive.

Apple needs to open up a bit, specially now that they are getting more market-share. Heck, Apple has a lot of communities that they can tap, e.g., the Apple Distinguished Educators, Developers, Partners, etc., to help them beta test their apps for free! I am wondering what Apple is afraid of — did they have a negative experience with a public beta testing program?

How does this relate to education? Computer Science students must realize that public beta is important. Unfortunately, there is very little chance for students to conduct public betas of their projects. Faculty members are often too engrossed with making sure that students accomplish the impossible (unreasonable requirements) and not realizing that software testing is an integral part of a Computer Science student’s training! 

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