Apps Leave Beta

But as the NY Times reports, theres more to it than just TCs criticism:

Practically speaking, the change will mean precious little to Gmails millions of users. But it could help Googles efforts to get the paid version of its package of applications, which includes Gmail, Calendar, Docs and other products, adopted inside big companies. Corporate technology managers tend to shy away from beta products, and Google wants to remove any barriers to adoption that it can.

For business customers, it is an important sign in terms of the maturity of our product offering and commitment to this business, -a Google director of product management, Matt- Glotzbach said. Ive had C.I.O.s tell me that they would not consider a product labeled beta.

Gmail anticipates some gamma anxiety, so theyve added a new experiment to labs"to add back the little gray BETA to your Gmail logo. (And we all know how they like their silly lab apps!)

What do you think? Will dropping the Beta label help Google gain enterprise acceptance? Will you add the beta back your Gmail, just so you can continue to ridicule its half-decade in beta?

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