Microsoft offers Visual Studio 2010 preorder bonus

Seeking to encourage upgrades to its upcoming Visual Studio 2010 IDE, a Microsoft executive has detailed a promotional offer intended to prod users of the Standard Editions of Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 to move to the new platform. The company also is offering a preordering option for Visual Studio 2010, which is set to launch on April 12.

In a blog post, S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division, cited the company's intentions to assist Standard Edition customers with upgrades.

"Today, I'm announcing our Standard Offer promotion to ensure current Standard Edition customers can easily and affordably move up to Visual Studio 2010," Somasegar said. "The Standard Offer enables customers who purchased Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 Standard Edition to upgrade to Visual Studio 2010 at the previous Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition $299 retail price. Standard customers can take advantage of this offer April 12-October 12, 2010."

Somasegar noted that Microsoft previously announced packaging and licensing options for Visual Studio 2010, offering Ultimate, Premium, and Professional editions. Visual Studio 2010 features capabilities for building applications for Windows 7, the Windows Azure cloud platform, and the SharePoint collaboration platform. Other capabilities include multi-monitor support and the ability to target multiple versions of the .Net Framework with a single tool.

Somasegar also announced MSDN Essentials, which includes a one-year trial subscription to MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network), will accompany every copy of Visual Studio Professional sold via retail. A preordering offer also is featured.

"For the first time ever, we are giving developers the opportunity to preorder Visual Studio 2010. The Microsoft Store and select online resellers will pre-sell Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN Essentials from March 9 until the product launch," Somasegar said.

MSDN Essentials offers access to Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, and SQL Server Datacenter R2 for development and test use. Twenty hours of access to the Windows Azure cloud platform is featured as well, along with access to forums and support

Visual Studio 2010 had been set for a launch this month but Microsoft pushed back the date after performance problems were uncovered in a beta release.