Is a more structured Alpha/Beta program needed?

This will be my last comment on this issue and I guess it goes to the crux of the matter from my perspective.  Whatever you have been doing with Beta and Alpha testing did not work for release 1.8.  You can explain it away however you wish.  If your going to start requiring customers to pay $200 for major software version releases you better get them right.  

I for one would not feel good about paying a premium price for a radio and then paying for software that does not work properly upon release.  It is your job to do whatever is needed to get it right the first time.  If I wanted to waive that expectation then I would have purchased an Anan at half the price and been the willing beta tester of the free open source software.  If you do not place any value in this message them maybe you have lost contact with the discussion that occurs on the air everyday when I hear people talking about switching to Flex vs Anan vs Icom. 

Remember a unhappy customer tells many more people about their bad experience than a fanboy tells about their good experience.  It will not take many failed releases before Flex gets perceived as having unreliable software updates.