As usual, taking a little extra time early on provides huge benefits. The outside beta test can be a very exciting stage in the software development process. Dedicated, loyal customers who are anxious to see your company and its products succeed eagerly download the software, thereby exposing it to a much broader range of platforms than you can hope to have available in your lab and all for free. The marketing department is thrilled because your product is being exposed to privileged customers who will spread great word of mouth before your product hits the shelves. For the product team, the release of a beta is usually regarded as the last milestone before the retail version of the product ships.
Beta tests can, however, be laden with unfulfilled promise and wasted cycles.
Many of the defects that are reported are trivial. Some testers especially the better ones report a few defects, and then are never heard from again. A large beta test might be a useful publicity stunt, but it's debatable that numbers alone improve the quality of the test. Microsoft proudly announces that tens of thousands have beta tested Office and Windows. The beta cycle can be used purely as a marketing ploy, with little useful feedback for engineering.