Windows 7 & Visual Studio 2010
It has been almost 2 weeks since the launch of Windows 7 – an opportunity to pause and look back on our preparation and the stellar support provided by our partner ecosystem. Windows 7 has landed exceptionally well in the marketplace. We’ve seen some crazy things, like a 7 layer Whopper promo in Japan and people camping out for midnight store openings.
I am optimistic the momentum we see in Microsoft Windows will translate as additional business for Microsoft partners. A recent IDC study estimated that technology companies in the US will sell an extra $110 billion in Windows 7-related products and services through the end of next year. Those companies will also boost the economy by investing $41 billion to develop, sell, and support new products for Windows 7 users.
The evangelism teams were able to secure public statements of support for thousands of applications worldwide. We haven’t achieved this kind of pre-release support ever, and I sincerely appreciate the partnerships we have. Customers can now easily identify applications that work with the current generation OS via the Windows 7 Compatibility Center.
The top news this month is that Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 have reached beta status (with official launch planned for March 22). We've announced a much simpler product lineup (we did away with the role-specific versions) and have brought significant new product capabilities. We've included powerful prototyping, modeling, test, and design tools and expanded the platform support to include Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008, Microsoft SharePoint and cloud applications. MSDN is integrated into most of the product offerings and has been expanded with Azure compute hours, TFS licensing, and e-learning offerings via a revamped MSDN site.
Partners will continue receiving the same or (in most cases) better value Microsoft development tools benefits via the Microsoft Partner Network. For example, the net change for Gold Certified Partners with ISV Competency is they will receive Visual Studio 2010 Premium (replacing their VSTS Development Edition) and 35 Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 licenses.
Customers have the option to leverage the “Ultimate Offer” promotion prior to release: buy or renew your MSDN Premium subscription to receive a more advanced edition of Visual Studio 2010 with MSDN when it ships.
