Back in the good old days, (I’m talking about the 90s and post 90s period), a company normally never released a product until it was ready for the prime-time. They’d, I mean the developers would, crank out every possible weakness and keep the package in the Beta phase until they thought that the product was void of all loopholes and cliches.

And by the way, those Beta versions never made it to the market in such abundance, as of right now. It was a good thing. In literary circles, it’s called: the good riddance factor.

Go back to the days when Microsoft released Windows 95 Beta. Only a handful of people got their eager fingers on the pre-launch version of the product. And mind you, they really felt privileged to be a part of the Beta game.

The old definition of Beta meant that the product was too raw for usage. It also meant that the product was cool so far and it’d be an honor for you to try it. Fast forward to today and you’ll notice that the same Beta hype has been notched up a little. The whole internet and “i-want-it-right-now-“ generation craze has made it a lot easier for anyone to get the Beta product on quick basis.

Plus, the internet is no longer in the Dial-Up ages, so you can instantly download any pre-release version within a couple of minutes. Those product manufacturers are not doing it the same way they used to. And I’m not talking about computer hardware and software thingy. Take a look at BMW, Mazda and Toyota; those companies have recalled so many models, all because there was some sort of fault in there somewhere.

In some cases, developers do have an idea that the product isn’t finished 100%, but they probably say, “Ah what the hell… lets release it, we didn’t find any errors in it … so far.”

From a general perspective, it is time for companies to offer discounts on Beta Tagged products. Trust me, they should be doing it. We, as customers, pay full price for something that’s not really guaranteed to work. So why do we need to pay them in full?