What perpetual beta to me is There’s no final version available. Nothing is static, everything is changing. With every new iteration, small changes make you realize the creature is alive. also we can say that small testing part is always on which can helps to removes most of the risks because the changes are much smaller.
“Google apps” is one of the examples of perpetual Beta. Standard is much better then the all other non-beta software. More than 1.75 ,million companies around the world run their business on the Google Apps, including Google it self. As in today’s fast demanding world beta products are not satisfied user needs. So, all the applicatio in Google apps are using perpetual methodology.
“Google Apps” includes applications such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk they all have both enterprise and consumer versions. They are still innovative and improving upon their applications has some other features which are appealing to large enterprises such as mail delegation, mail retention and ongoing enhancements to Apps reliability.Google considering perpetual beta as a writing a book. one can not make changes ones book is published until the next version of that book is published.
here is the video witch shows demo about how to use Google apps at home or at business..
Criticism: Critics of Google consider “perpetual beta” strategy as an internal excuse for poor craftsmanship and even poorer execution. Google disagrees, trying to spin its beta story for Computer World as a positive thing and some how different from traditional software:(Matt Asay, CNET Blog Network author). However, I ll again consider it as a good point as mistake is also a part if learning process.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_beta
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10054293-16.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJT3pagjd8s
