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Major products do not usual ship in July or August - so if they have not arrived by June then September becomes the first available timepoint. Given the size and history of these products, however, 'anytime before the end of 2005' might be a wiser prediction.

Microsoft has announced revised US pricing for Visual Studio 2005, and tweaked subscription terms for its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscriptions, the channel by which most developers obtain Visual Studio. With the estimated prices being revised downwards, Microsoft will also offer MSDN subs with Visual Studio Professional Edition products at special rates. This is 'to afford small businesses the same subscription benefits as large enterprises,' it states.

The next version of Visual Studio will be accompanied by a Team System counterpart, which is aimed at helping different groups within a development team work together more effectively.

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The suite will help manage the software lifecycle, from modelling and requirements analysis to integrated deployment tools.

'With Visual Studio 2005 Team System, Microsoft introduces features and technologies to support application development through all phases of the software life cycle, from development to deployment,' said S. Somasegar, corporate VP of Microsoft's Developer Division. 'In addition, more accessible tools pricing for small businesses and simplification of MSDN subscription levels for our enterprise customers will enable Microsoft to deliver a complete development platform to satisfy developers at all levels.'

This will bring Microsoft into direct competition with Borland, which has long emphasised the group-oriented lifecycle tools (aka Application Lifecycle Management, 'ALM') that can be part of its Delphi, C++ Builder and JBuilder systems. Its Together Edition for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, for example, has previously supplemented the Redmond offering.

Borland, however, has publicly welcomed the new competition because Team System can also be integrated into third-party IDEs.

You can read more about Microsoft's developer suite at msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/, and about SQL Server 2005 at www.microsoft.com/sql/default.mspx.