If you’ve been part of the Apple ecosystem for more than half a decade, you will remember a time when Apple didn’t release the betas for its OSes. Sure, there were developer betas, available for a hefty annual price. But a free public Beta Program? That’s a recent development.
For a company that is irritatingly uptight about secrecy, allowing the public unrestricted access to its code before an official launch is way off character. So why did Apple take that step? What caused Apple to seek out public feedback after all these years?
There’s just one answer: Apple Maps!!
Remember Apple Map’s disastrous launch back in 2012? The utter failure of design, the public backlash, and the sheer embarrassment it caused the company were all unprecedented in Apple’s history. It was one of those rare occasions when Apple had to issue a public apology!
The reason Maps failed was because it wasn’t tested enough. Everyone involved in the testing team was based out of Cupertino, and the data they had for that place was extensive. Naturally, the app worked well for everyone there, but when it was launched to the public, the loopholes started showing up.
Rendering maps is a complicated and data-intensive process, and the chunks of data that was missing resulted in the app’s dismal performance, for which it has become infamous today! That was when Apple decided to rise above their humiliation and start the public beta programme to ensure that such a debacle never happened again.
So, if you wish to receive Apple software before everyone else, you can sign up for their public beta program by clicking right here. We urge you to read instructions carefully before signing up, and highly recommend you don’t download a public beta to your main device.
Edison once said, “There’s a great value in disaster.” Apple seems to have taken that to heart and used the debacle that was Apple Maps to turn it into an opportunity to learn and make itself better. That really is the spirit we value!