In February 2005, ZDNet published an article about the phenomenon of a beta version often staying for years and being used as if it were in production level. and from 2009 to 2011, Minecraft was in public beta. Microsoft's release of community technology previews ( CTPs) for Windows Vista, between September 2005 and May 2006. In 1984, Stephen Manes wrote that "in a brilliant marketing coup, Bruce and James Program Publishers managed to get people to pay for the privilege of testing the product." In September 2000 a boxed version of Apple's Mac OS X Public Beta operating system was released. Major public beta's developed afterwards, with early customers having purchased a "pioneer edition" of the WordVision word processor for the IBM PC for $49.95. The usage of "beta test" to refer to testing done by customers was not done in IBM.
IBM dropped the alpha/beta terminology during the 1960s, but by then it had received fairly wide notice. Martin Belsky, a manager on some of IBM's earlier software projects claimed to have invented the terminology. As software became a significant part of IBM's offerings, the alpha test terminology was used to denote the pre-announcement test and the beta test was used to show product readiness for general availability. "C" test was the final test before the general availability of the product. "B" test was the verification before releasing the product to be manufactured. "A" test was the verification of a new product before the public announcement. Similar terminologies for IBM's software development were used by people involved with IBM from at least the 1950s (and probably earlier). Usage of the "alpha/beta" test terminology originated at IBM.
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