iPhone Developers Need Beta Testers Too
February 7, 2009
Beta testing software is an important step for developers to get their products as polished as possible before unleashing it on the general public. All too often we see developers release their products in an untested state, causing their application or game to receive bad publicity before it ever had a chance to shine. There hasn't been a centralized location for developers to find beta testers until now.
iBetaTest.com was launched on January 31, 2009 and was created to give developers the ability to find quality beta testers while giving regular folks the opportunity to share in the excitement. Since the site was just recently launched, there isn't much of a selection of software to test quite yet so you will have to be patient.
Developers can submit their application to the site and designate a number for the amount of beta testers they need. The developers then approve the beta testers to make sure the job gets done right. All of the beta testers are able to communicate with each other and report on bugs in the software. Once the software is deemed worthy, beta testers may be compensated and the developers give each beta tester a rating. The ratings are used for future reference so developers can choose the best beta testers available on the site.
The compensation part is still a bit foggy. Each developer can compensate the beta testers however they please. It can be as simple as a redemption code for the final version of the software or even cold hard cash. It is the developer's decision to make. iBetaTest.com also offers rewards for beta testers who are rated highly but they have yet to post what the rewards will be.
A centralized location for iPhone software beta testing is an interesting idea. The service could help developers get their product right the first time instead of having to issue update after update upon initial release. Plus, beta testers get to try unreleased applications and games for free with some sort of added compensation. What's not to like?