As an active iPhone apps user, I’ve quite often experienced an app having two, or even three, releases in rapid succession. More often than not to fix quite simple bugs or usability issues.
I’ve recently come to think that this is because of the App Store’s lack of beta releases – a feature-complete version released to a limited number of people, often an opt-in choice by users more eager to test new features.
These early releases have been paramount to web 2.0 services and Open Source software. Quoting Linus Torvalds, “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.”
The rigorous release process of Apple’s App Store prohibits this due to the all-in characteristic of a software release: When a new version is released it’s immediately available to everybody, and all previous versions disappear.
The consequence of this is that app vendors have two options:
- Extensive testing of new releases, inhibiting a quick release cycle and being quite expensive, or
- Releasing untested software to the general public and using your entire customer base as testers, regardless of their willingness to use incomplete software.
People opting in to beta releases have a higher threshold for bugs or usability issues, and provide competent feedback on shortcomings.
This is a quality benefit for everybody, including Apple’s app reviewers. The software they assess would in general have higher quality, and the assessment could be tiered based on whether it’s a general release or beta release.
What is your experience? How does the applications you develop or use deal with pre-release testing?
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