Beta testing, as I understand it, is when a manufacturer releases a device to the public with the expectation that the public's experience with the device will be the last phase of product testing.
I had one of those. It was good.
I'm a fan, and have had good experience with Apple until the 2017 MBP. I still have my first computer, a Macintosh Plus, in a box in my apartment. Pound for pound, its hardware and construction may be better made than any of the new computers I have owned.
I'm a buyer, but at current prices my buying has slowed a bit.
Oh, I know the definition of "beta test" and your definition is NOT it. Beta testing is actually the second phase of testing where new testers, who have not seen the product before, use to to determine any bugs that the original testers did not find. It typically involves external users in real-world environments who report meticulously on what they find. Here is the dictionary definition:
: a field test of the beta version of a product (such as software) especially by testers outside the company developing it that is conducted prior to commercial release
Commercial release, or the final product, is the result of the beta testing and the changes that result from it. There are cynics these days who think companies release too early, letting early adopters fulfill the beta testing, but the downside to that is that if Apple were to do that with hardware, the repair rates would go through the roof and warranty costs would skyrocket. So, I would bet that for hardware, Apple has a cadre of trusted beta testers who they know will actually exercise the devices in real world environments and do a good job of reporting. Every once in a while the beta testing escapes into the open, like when someone left an early iPhone, I think it was, in a public restaurant or bar in California and it got some press. There are also some ways that investigators can sense new hardware in the internet, which the rumor mills jump on pretty quickly, so letting the beta test machine out of Apple Park is probably a well-controlled event in the life cycle of hardware.
Any company that tries to use the paying consumer to be the final beta testers is going to die quickly. I might buy a product from a company once that way, but never again. I don't pay commercial prices for untested products knowingly. I expect the hardware to work or be fully supported by the company if it doesn't. A design may change, but if I find I bought a "test" machine, I won't go back to that company for anything, ever.
Now, for software, Apple does use a phase called "public beta test" for OS releases, but nobody is paying for it, and I bet Apple gets very little good feedback from it. Beta testing software is a science, and the tester needs to push the "boundaries" to see if they can break the software. Beta testing a browser? Open 20 pages, then 200, then 2000, to see how many you can have open at the same time and not crash. Beta Testing a word processor? Exercise every option for format, text, layout, import, export, save, recover, etc. Bang on keys and key combinations both in an not in the user guides. Try different hardware, networking. Basically, try to break it, any way you can. So, the "public beta" testing from Apple is really just a pre-release to the public for which they expect little actual results. I would be surprised if 1% of those who install the public betas ever actually report anything useful. Actually, I'd make that 0.1%! But again, it's all free to the consumers who install it.
