G1 Android is still offering few Beta apps?

I'm as surprised as you are, when I first read about this great insight by Royal Pingdom's blog, and then I realized how true it is: 22 of Google's products are still in Beta version! And that's not what really shook me, I even forgotten that the Gmail I've been using since 2004 is in fact still in Beta state...

From the 49 Google products, here are the few most notable of them that still in Beta:

• Gmail
• Talk
• Calendar
• Google Docs
• Orkut
• Google Finance

The first three apps up there are offered in T-Mobile's G1 handset, so that would means we're still using Beta products instead of the final and stable release. The end question is why, why does Google still keep on using the Beta label? Royal Pingdom has came up with a very good answer:

"Charging money for a beta product. Google has paid options for Gmail and Docs (via Google Apps). So, how does that rhyme with these products being in beta? A beta product is by definition an unfinished product, which is usually not something you charge money for. Is any other company getting away with this? We don’t know of any."

Afterwards, Paul McNamara over at

Networkworld got an answer from Google regarding this matter:
"We have very high internal metrics our consumer products have to meet before coming out of beta. Our teams continue to work to improve these products and provide users with an even better experience. We believe beta has a different meaning when applied to applications on the Web, where people expect continual improvements in a product. On the Web, you don’t have to wait for the next version to be on the shelf or an update to become available. Improvements are rolled out as they’re developed. Rather than the packaged, stagnant software of decades past, we’re moving to a world of regular updates and constant feature refinement where applications live in the cloud."

I know I wanted to live in the 'cloud', it's good and fun. But I also wanted to have an insurance that my apps that I've bought, are legit and can be rely on when I'm using them. I surely don't want to rely on a Beta labeled apps, which lethally means: "use at your own risk!" ;-D

Although looking at video demo below on how the Google apps work on G1, I don't think anyone would mind using Beta products. ~LOL~

[blogged with my Treo 750v]