Software Approvals For Consumer Markets?

Odkin asks: "Some friends and I are struggling with a hardware project which is stalled due to costly consumer market approvals (which is alright I guess). But it struck me, why are there only market approvals for hardware and not software? The hardware approvals include functionality tests that ensure that the product works as intended in any way the user would handle it (even unsuitable use). Would such approvals for commercial software improve the quality of the products, including minimizing the risk of data loss and heightening the security? In other words, would it facilitate or inhibit the creation of good software?"

Comments

Would Bill Gates let Windows be tested ?

[aquatican]

I wonder how many bugs a independent tester
would find if they were to test Windows before
public release.

Would sure save the world a lot of pain, reboots
and worms.