Beta than average

One of the hallmarks of the Apple that Steve Jobs built was speed to market.

While other electronics companies can be painfully slow to release new versions of their products and wait until all the bugs are ironed out, Apple sees its development cycle as a sort of constant evolution, where tweaking and tinkering and updating is a never-ending process.

This model allows Apple to have the best of both worlds. It gets to have big product launches with maximum hype and it also gets to continue to develop products once they are out there in the real world. And Apple’s ardent fans accept the process, which is common across the software industry.

The model works well, but it can expose the company to problems. Which is what we’ve seen in recent weeks with battery life issues with the new iPhone 4S.

A significant number of users (particularly in the United States) have complained that the battery life on the new device was poor, with the problems apparently linked to issues with Apple’s notification centre, antenna settings and its iCloud service.

In recognition of the problem, Apple released a software update on the weekend, but apparently the fix didn’t solve all of the issues.

“The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices,” an Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg.

“We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.”

In the grand scheme of things, the incidence of battery problems appears to be relatively low and the issue will likely be resolved in the space of a few weeks.

But it is the second such problem for Apple in recent years, after the release of the iPhone 4 was plagued with antenna problems that took some time to be resolved, initially through the release of special phone covers and later with a software upgrade.

Does two post-release problems in a row suggest a deeper issue? Or is this part of the normal process of ironing out bugs after some “real world” testing?

As TechCompany editor Patrick Stafford explained to me this morning, the natural limits of pre-release testing means software companies always need to go through a process of troubleshooting after the release of a new product.

It’s also important to note that Apple isn’t the only electronics company that goes through the process of issuing software updates to fix bugs and the company’s record of responding to issues is pretty good.

But Apple is one of many electronics companies standing at the intersection of some interesting changes.

Apple’s core customer base might have traditionally been tech lovers, but the rise of the iPhone means that there are thousands of very un-tech savvy users out there who wouldn’t have the first idea about installing a software update.

To many of these people, a smartphone is a device that lets them take and make calls, send text messages, surf the internet and check social media.

Smartphones might be complex computing devices, but the less tech-savvy users I know expect these devices to just work. No bugs, no fuss.

In all likelihood, it is the customers that are going to have to change, not the big electronics companies.

As phones and their operating systems become more complex and crammed with features, the bug spotting and fixing process will only become more important. And many consumers may be happy to wear a few bugs in exchange for the cache of owning the latest, coolest phone.

But I do wonder if the electronics companies are going to have to be careful with the model of getting products to market quickly and bug fixing on the run. Releasing phones that need problems fixed within weeks may well start to grate on customers – even if the problems are minor and even if you are Apple.

Of course, there is a smart answer to all this – patience. Whatever the product and whoever makes it, waiting a few months before rushing out to buy looks like a pretty smart idea.