Some writers have chided Apple for releasing Siri as a beta. They claim that the bugginess and lack of polish connoted by the word “beta” evidence a breach of elegance that is unworthy of Apple.

I wonder who would complain if Siri had been called “Siri 1.0″ instead of “Siri beta.”

Consumers have, by now, seen enough 1.0 apps for the term to have its own connotation. When I see a 1.0 app, I (and I expect many others) expect something that is not as feature complete as one would really like it to be, with perhaps some infrequent bugs and an insufficiency of real-world testing. I expect the 1.0 app to be merely the first in a string of releases that will over time bring the app to completeness. I accept that developers cannot keep their projects in beta forever, and at some point have to ship the product, imperfect though it is.

I’ve bought my share of 1.0 apps and on the whole I’m grateful for the use of them in their 1.0 condition without having to wait for the more complete version.

In short, I expect more from a 1.0 app than from a beta, but I do not expect a lot. Siri, with its foibles, works quite well enough for me at the moment. Far be it from me to tell how Apple how to market its products, but one has to wonder if using “1.0″ rather than “beta” would have nipped some criticism in the bud.