Being one of those people who makes his living in the software industry, I truly cannot stand that mentality.
"Hey, lets use the installed user base as beta testers, they won't mind! they'll think it's awesome".
And what's with Apple CHARGING for a beta release of OSX?

This is why people hate software companies. I get tons of email from users who are loaded for a fight when the write to us and want something really simple like a copy of their license key or they just assume that they're not going to get any support because they're still using the trial version or whatever. Clearly this doesn't happen in a vacuum; they've had these experiences enough times to warrant the position.
Why in the **** would a company poke their customers in the eye by setting this sort of expectation. It boggles the mind.

Apple is notoriously bad at this. Microsoft has gotten immeasurably better since they moved much of the support back from overseas. The little developers selling apps on the Android Market/App Store/Live Marketplace are doing a surprisingly good job in most cases, even without dedicated support staff.

we've gotten quite far off topic on this though...I agree with the premise of the article, however. If the iPad was any other companies product, it would be excoriated in the press as pointless and irrelevant and no one would buy it.
EnTourage is doing a really good job of positioning the eDGe. Just looking through the available titles shows such an abundance of propeller-head publications that the target audience is clear.