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Public Hardware Beta Tests
orangerobot writes "Commercial software companies have performed public beta tests of their products for quite some time but more recently Philips Electronics has started holding public betas of new consumer hardware gadgets. A few months ago it was the Streamium MC-i250, and now it's their iPod clone the HDD-100. Public hardware betas seem like a great way to do a bit of marketing and user testing at the same time maybe more companies will pick up the same idea." This seems like a great idea for a company wanting to collect usability data on their interfaces, so that the release version can be tweaked.
And when I get killed "beta-testing" a not-ready-for-prime-time automobile or something, that'll be really great!
Whatever happened to releasing a product when it's ready?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I once got a free internal DSL modem from Efficient Networks because they were beta testing the drivers on their new internal card on linux. Very nice of them, I hear the card was expensive.
What signature defines me as a person?
Having just filled out the form, this is a win win for Philips. Only 50 people will get the hardware, which costs them next to nothing.
But when they get out of the deal is thousdands of people filling out pretty detailed information that they normally wouldn't fill out in the hopes of getting something for free.
Good idea.
Gee thanks! I had signed up for the beta test and
now I've got the entire slashdot crowd applying --
there go my odds of getting one...
I've been developing computers (laptops and now tablets) for a while, and I love the idea of beta testing.
For the most part, I find that beta testing allows us to get extended product use cycles in a short amount of time, allows people to find problems that we wouldn't otherwise find right away, etc etc...
By allowing people to beta test, it is like hiring a X number of person QA department for free. And usually, those beta testers are more energetic in finding problems cause it makes them feel important and they approach the product unlike my engineers do who have been looking at it for months. Personally, I get (sometimes get) sick of staring at my product after I leave work since I've been staring at it, and its problems all day long. But beta testers find beta testing a challenge to themselves to try all possible combinations and procedures in hopes of finding a bug.
So, as far as I am concerned, from a eningeering manager stand point, the beta testers for the most part are extremely helpful, so long as they return useable data.
Let me know when you all finish filling out the application. I quit when I saw that the 3rd page had what looked like at least 20-30 additional questions. Forget the beta-test, what Phillips is really looking for is a lot of data points on a a huge market research study - I'm sure they could care less about the actual beta-test itself.
I actually got an e-mail a few days ago about this "beta test". While I'm all for it and realize that it does provide Phillips useful feedback on their product, I just wanted to point out that the beta test portion of it is really a beneficial side-effect of what they're after.
The actual reason Phillips is doing this is to get people to fill out the very detailed survey regarding what you look for in a portable storage device like the one they're beta testing. They ask what features are important to you, what price you're willing to pay, and other information that's much more valuable to them than the manufacturing cost of 50 or 100 units.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this (after all, I filled the survey out), but let's realize that they're not trying to give 50 or 100 units away to geeks, they're really just trying to decide where to invest research and development.
Look, even if it is just a shot in the dark to get a beta slot on this program, go ahead and fill out the form anyway and be sure to ask for OGG Vorbis support. Maybe they will look at it the stats and say "hmmm" there's something to that and support the open source format!
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
Top things that you DONT want to beta test.
1. Parachutes.
2. Invasive surgical procedures.
3. Seat Belts.
4. Condoms. (Whoops, it broke. Now was that a Yes or a No to my "Do you have herpes" question?)
5. Pot Holders (So, on a scale of 1 to 5, how badly would you say you were scalded?)
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Whatever happened to releasing a product when it's ready?
Some issues, like usability, do benefit from a beta. The more morons you expose a product to, the more likely one of them will report a usability problem. Remember the "butterfly ballot" problem in Florida? A well conducted beta would have changed history.
Beta users volunteering to test a product that isn't dangerous is a good thing.
After filling out their lengthy survey (slim chance of being 1 of the 50 now that it's posted on /.) I can tell you why they do this. The "application" is basically a marketing survey. They'll get tens of thousands of these surveys completed, and it only cost them 50 devices.
Kind thoughts do not change the world