25 Oct Is Beta the new Vapor?
Twenty years ago, there was one industry list that every company wanted to avoid: The Vapor List. Created by Stewart Alsop, the founder of DEMO and then publisher of PC Letter, the List counted the weeks, then months (and in a few rare occasions, years) between the time a software product was announced and when it actually shipped to customers.
At a time when dozens of new companies were scrambling to put software on the then new PC platform, the list was Stewart’s way of calling software makers on the practice of announcing products to put a stake in the ground and slow the sales of competing programs. Why buy from X now, when Y claims it will sell a more feature-rich product in the very near future?
Often, that future wasn’t very near, and it was, ultimately, an embarrassment to have your product on the Vapor list month after month. Stewart’s list went a long way toward curbing the practice of pre-announcing software in order to stall the market and gain competitive advantage through hype rather than substance.
I was thinking about the Vapor List last week as I talked with one-half dozen or so DEMO hopefuls who need (want?) to “beta test” their Web-based products before they launch. Without a doubt, these companies want to shake the bugs out of their services. They also want to lay claim to a particular market segment or product concept. So they slap “beta” on the title banner and throw open a Website to the public.
With “beta” on the banner, the theory goes, customers are warned that they are in the Web equivalent of a hard-hat zone. They enter at their own risk. Meanwhile, the site will exploit those risk takers to advance their company-building agenda.
The word “beta” has become a Get Out of Jail Free card for developers who want to get to market and amass customers more than test the usability, stability, or viability of their product. Beta in this context is no longer a means to polish a product for market. Instead, it’s a tactic along the path of business development designed to capture the attention of investors and raise valuations.
“We throw open the doors to our beta and look, Mr. Investor, at all those pretty customers who are using our site.”
No doubt, the process of software testing with customers is different in today’s Web-based world than in the packaged desktop era. Still, a discipline of a beta process seems lost in the transition. Where beta was once about product quality, it’s now about business building, customer land grabs, and market validation.
The former can take place in private, invitation-only product tests. Real users are the key to validating design and functionality. They, along with automated agents, are essential to testing scalability of Web applications, and they are quite able to do these things behind closed doors and without great fanfare.
The “quiet public beta,” as some have recently positioned their plans to me, has a different purpose altogether. Its purpose is to test traction in the market. That’s well and good. But let’s not call it “beta.” Instead, call it what it is, a product launch.
Otherwise, we may need to resurrect Stewart’s idea and institute the Beta List – sites that claim they’re not ready for prime time, while playing for prime audiences.
Which sites are on your Beta List? Leave your comments below.
Comments:
• You get an “Amen” from me, Chris. I was up at a local college last week talking to about 100 students in a web-based business classes, and most identified “beta programs” as a quick way to box in perceived competitors and lock down a market segment in advance of polished code. Many of the students also identified beta programs as being a good way to get wiggle room in the days before a “true” launch. The conversations were disturbing for me to hear.
– Jim Forbes
• Like provisional patents, there should be a date by which you need to “file,” or you lose precedence on claims.
– Madhavan
• What a timely post! Your point is well taken, Chris. As PR professionals, closely working with start-ups and larger companies, we definitely walk that line to ensure that “beta” is truly what it is.
– Audrey Craipain
Recent articles by Chris Shipley
• Chris Shipley: What makes Silicon Valley so different?
• Chris Shipley: Treo 700w solves my smart phone woes
• Chris Shipley: Am I spoiled if I expect well-designed mobile devices?
• Chris Shipley: More women needed in interface design
• Chris Shipley: Opportunities rise from travel chaos
This column was reprinted with permission of Network World Inc. All registered trademarks are owned by IDG. More information can be found at http://www.idgef.com.
The opinions expressed herein or statements made in the above column are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Wisconsin Technology Network, LLC. (WTN). WTN, LLC accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed herein.