All About Microsoft

July 14th, 2009

Microsoft to allow Win Mobile 6.0, 6.1 users access to its online app store

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:05 am

Categories: Apple, Channel, Corporate strategy, Network service providers, OEMs, Windows Mobile, Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC)

Tags: Phone, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Mobile, Microsoft Corp., App, Microsoft Windows, Mobile Operating Systems, Advertising & Promotion, Operating Systems, Mobile Applications

On the same day Apple celebrated the one-year anniversary of its iPhone app store, Microsoft announced it a few more tidbits about its own Windows Marketplace for Mobile store.

Microsoft used its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans on July 14 to provide a few updates about its Windows Mobile plans.

The first Windows Mobile 6.5 phones are on track to begin shipping in early fall, said Todd Brix, Senior Director of Mobile Services with Microsoft. The Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store will  open simultaneously, Brix reiterated. And Microsoft will be kicking off an ad campaign for Windows Phones (the new way the company refers to Windows Mobile phones) that will be very consumer-focused.

As of July 27, Microsoft will begin testing and certifying third-party apps that will be featured in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile (codenamed Skymarket), Brix said.

And Microsoft is now publicly acknowledging that it will allow users of Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 — not just Windows Mobile 6.5 — will be able to access the Windows Marketplace for Mobile. As a result, Microsoft will expand the market for those apps to 30 million potential customers, Brix said.

Brix said Microsoft is working with Windows Mobile phone makers and mobile operators as to how it will provide users with older Windows Mobile phones with this Marketplace access. In some cases, users will simply be able to go to the Marketplace Web site and download apps directly to their phones. In other cases, mobile operators and phone vendors might become the middlemen, providing Windows Mobile users with access to the store.

The Marketplace for Mobile store will include a separate business center area that will highlight the business apps available for Windows Mobile phones, Brix said. Those kinds of apps will include vertical apps for real estate, medical, legal and other markets, as well as more horizontal apps like Microsoft’s own Office Mobile and Communicator Mobile wares, he said.

Brix declined to provide any kind of update on what’s going on with Windows Mobile 7. I’m still hearing Microsoft will deliver the Mobile 7 code to its phone partners this fall, with the first Windows Mobile 7 phones arriving in the first half of 2010.

He also declined to comment on Skyline, the Windows Mobile push e-mail service Microsoft was working on for SMB customers. In fact, he wouldn’t acknowledge the codename at all. But if body language says anything, though, I’d say Skyline is DOA and we won’t see it come to market.

July 14th, 2009

Microsoft announces its Azure cloud computing pricing

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:23 am

Categories: .Net Framework, Azure, Channel, Corporate strategy, Database, Management tools, Red Dog, Resellers, SQL Server, System Center, Systems integrators, Utility/cloud computing, Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Pricing Strategy, Pricing, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Storage, Databases, Marketing Research, Marketing, Hardware

Microsoft reconfirmed today that its cloud computing platform will be commercially available this November and unveiled pricing for its Azure components — the base operating system, its hosted database and its messaging service.

At the Worldwide Partner Conference on July 14, Microsoft, as expected, announced prices for customers who want to host their apps in Microsoft’s and/or Microsoft partners’ datacenters. Microsoft also shared more details on its private-cloud positioning during the kick-off keynote at the show on Tuesday.

Here’s the Azure pricing, courtesy of the Windows Azure blog:

Windows Azure:

Compute @  $0.12 / hour
Storage @ $0.15 / GB stored
Storage Transactions @ $0.01 / 10K

SQL Azure:

Web Edition – Up to 1 GB relational database @ $9.99
Business Edition – Up to 10 GB relational database @ $99.99

.NET Services:

Messages @ $0.15/100K message operations , including Service Bus messages and Access Control tokens

Bandwidth across all three services will be charged at $0.10 in / $0.15 out / GB

Microsoft reiterated that Azure will be available via consumption-based pricing. Compute hours will be charged only for when apps are deployed, not during development and testing. Microsoft is advising customers to “remove the compute instances that are not being used to minimize compute hour billing.”

Update: Microsoft also spelled out some of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) terms for Azure on July 14 via the Azure blog post. According to that post:

“To support partners’ and customers’ complex business needs we are providing an enterprise-class guarantee backed by a service-level agreement that covers service uptime, connectivity, and data availability.  For compute, we guarantee that when you deploy two or more role instances in different fault and upgrade domains your Internet facing roles will have external connectivity at least 99.95% of the time. Additionally, we will monitor all of your individual role instances and detect within two minutes when a role instance’s process is not running and initiate corrective action.   For storage, we guarantee that at least 99.9% of the time we will successfully process correctly formatted requests that we receive to add, update, read and delete data. We also guarantee that your storage accounts will have connectivity to our Internet gateway. “

Microsoft is trying to make sure its reseller partners don’t feel cut out of its Azure equation, even though Microsoft is doing much of the hosting. Microsoft is providing its partners with an additional five percent promotional discount on Windows Azure compute, SQL Azure and .NET Services, officials told WPC attendees.

Any initial observations on Microsoft’s licensing and SLA terms?

Update: The Register has a good analysis of Microsoft vs. Amazon consumption-based pricing which shows Microsoft only marginally undercuts Amazon. I don’t think Microsoft is actually offering Azure for free for the next three-plus months, as the Reg says, however. I think Microsoft is just continuing its free tech preview/beta program for its cloud offerings until it takes the “beta” tag off in mid-November.

Roger Jennings, of Oakleaf Systems fame, notes that Azure pricing isn’t competitive with Google App Engine for developers because Microsoft doesn’t appear to offer a free threshhold.

July 13th, 2009

Microsoft to flesh out further its private cloud strategy

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 2:15 pm

Categories: App Compatibility, Azure, Channel, Corporate strategy, Management tools, Network service providers, OEMs, Resellers, System Center, System builders, Systems integrators, Utility/cloud computing, Virtualization, Windows server, Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC)

Tags: Strategy, Data Center, Microsoft Corp., Data Centers, Storage, Hardware, Data Management, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is crystalizing its “private cloud” positioning and plans to run it by the 6,000 or so partners attending its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) this week.

Microsoft officials previously have said that they won’t allow customers to run the Microsoft Azure cloud operating system on customers’ on-premise servers, but that they will make available to users many of the advances in Windows Server, System Center, Hyper-V and other Microsoft technologies so users can create their own “private clouds.”

Microsoft is expected to tout its Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Enterprises at the show. The product, originally expected to ship by the end of 2009 — according to a private cloud fact sheet that was on Microsoft’s site earlier today but is gone — is now slated for the first half of 2010. It is a “free, partner-extensible toolkit that will enable datacenters to dynamically pool, allocate, and manage resources to enable IT as a service.” Microsoft already offers a version of the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for its hosting partners.

The Enterprise version of the toolkit is available to enterprise customers, systems integrators and independent software vendors. According to Microsoft’s site,, the toolkit includes an architectural roadmap, deployment guidance, best practices, tools (to help users move existing apps to the cloud?) and unnamed technologies that will provide “interoperability with public clouds.”

Microsoft is attempting to make the distinction between its private and public cloud solutions more concrete. On its Private Cloud subsite within its wider Virtualization site, Microsoft is providing definitions of its on-premise and off-premise datacenter offerings. According to the site:

“Private Cloud - an internal service-oriented environment optimized for performance and cost that is deployed inside a customer’s datacenter. Powered by packaged server products including Windows Server and Microsoft System Center family of products, private cloud provides compatibility with existing applications.

“Public Cloud - provided by service providers and offering customers the ability to deploy and consume services. In this category, Azure is a highly scalable services platform providing pay–as-you-go flexibility delivered from Microsoft’s datacenters.”

While it may not be the Azure OS itself that Microsoft is providing to datacenter users who want to host their own data rather than having Microsoft or its partners do it for them, Microsoft is playing up the similarities between the on-premise and hosted approaches. The tag line from Microsoft’s cloud computing subsite:

“By providing tools that enable customers to manage their fabric and deliver services, Microsoft is providing customers the foundation for cloud computing.”

Do you think Microsoft is just rebranding its existing datacenter software as “private-cloud”-capable? Or does Microsoft’s private-cloud tools and software give it a leg up over Amazon and Google?

In related news, Microsoft is expected to unveil Azure pricing and licensing on Tuesday, July 14, at the Worldwide Partner Conference.

(Thanks to Oakleaf Systems’ Roger Jennings for the pointer to the Microsoft cloud information site.)

July 13th, 2009

Next-gen Microsoft Forefront security products get final names, pricing

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 11:27 am

Categories: Code names, Corporate strategy, Security, Utility/cloud computing, Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC)

Tags: Security, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Corp., Pricing Strategy, Forefront Protection Suite, Microsoft Windows Active Directory, Groupware, Pricing, Directory Services

Forefront codename “Stirling” - the next generation of the Forefront Security Suite will be officially known as Forefront Protection Suite (FPS), the team announced at the Worldwide Partner Conference on July 13.

FPS includes all of the products in the existing suite, plus the Forefront Protection Manager (formerly known as the “Stirling” management console) and the Forefront Threat Management Gateway Web Security Service.

According to a new posting to the Forefront Team Blog:

“FPS pricing will remain the same as the current Forefront Security Suite and all of the component solutions will continue to be licensed on a subscription basis.  hey will also be available independently, with Forefront Protection Manager included. (Note that the Forefront Threat Management Gateway license is sold separately on a per processor basis.) “

A bunch of the point products in FPS are getting new names today, too.

* Forefront Client Security becomes Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010
* Forefront Security for Exchange Server becomes Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server
* Forefront Security for SharePoint becomes Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint
* Forefront Online Security for Exchange becomes Forefront Online Protection for Exchange
* Next generation of ISA Server 2006 becomes Forefront Threat management Gateway Web Security Service

Microsoft is planning to ship the FPS suite and individual products gradually, rolling them out between the end of 2009 and the first half of 2010.

In other naming news, Microsoft has said “Geneva,” the next version of Active Directory Federation Services, will be known as Active Directory Federation Services (no surprise there). The Geneva Framework will be known as Windows Identity Foundation.

July 13th, 2009

Take two: Microsoft says business licensees to get Windows 7 bits on September 1

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:54 am

Categories: App Compatibility, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client, Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC)

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Last week, it seemed Microsoft was going to make Windows 7 bits available to business customers with volume licensees right after the product was released to manufacturing in July.

But on July 13, Microsoft officials said business users with volume license agreements won’t be able to get the Windows 7 bits until September 1. Microsoft isn’t providing further information as to why customers will have to wait more than a month after RTM to get the final bits.

(Microsoft still hasn’t announced it has reached the RTM of Windows 7, but it is still expected to do so before the end of this month.)

What happened? Was  there a typo in the partner e-mail about which I reported last week? Was there a misunderstanding in the terms and conditions Microsoft was offering its users to get them to sign up for Software Assurance? A change in the company’s delivery plans? I asked Microsoft and didn’t receive an answer.

This is the statement I got via a spokesperson on July 13:

“As of September 1 our business customers will be able to order Windows 7 through our Volume Licensing partners to support their Windows 7 planning and deployment strategies. To help partners take advantage of the opportunity to upgrade businesses to Windows 7,  we will start a limited time, 6 month promotion of 15% or more off the price of the Windows 7 Professional upgrade compared to the Windows Vista price.”

I also asked when MSDN/TechNet would be able to download the final Windows 7 bits. The spokesperson said:

“We will provide an update on when MSDN/TechNet users can get the (Windows 7) bits, but we have nothing to share at this time.” (Microsoft amended this July 13 by saying that MSDN and TechNet subscribers will get Win 7  “a few weeks after” RTM.)

Update: Here’s some further clarification from Microsoft about how its existing Windows 7 volume-licensing offer is different from what was announced today:

Current SA offer: This is an offer to get Software Assurance, which includes rights to future upgrades, among other benefits.
* Timing: It ends on August 31. (Right before the new offer starts.)
* Offer: If a customer attaches software assurance to a new PC, that PC is eligible to upgrade to Windows 7 Enterprise as soon as it is available. The offer is that we have 15% discount on the cost of software assurance. Any PC purchased with a qualifying operation system, such as Windows Vista Business, since July 31, 2008 is eligible.
* If a customer has PC that they purchased since July 31, 2008 this offer is the better deal because the cost is less and the customer gets Windows 7 Enterprise.

Today’s offer: This is an offer for an upgrade license to Windows 7 Professional purchased through Volume Licensing.
* Timing: It starts on September 1, when Windows 7 will debut on the VL price list. (Right before the other offer ends.)
* Offer: Get a discount of 15% or more on an upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.  Offer available for 6 months. Any PC with a qualifying operating system such as Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional is eligible, regardless of when it was purchased.

As several readers noted when I originally reported that business users were slated to get the final Windows 7 bits by the end of this month, most business users won’t be champing at the bit for the final Windows 7 bits. They’ll need to do planning, get deployment tools in place, check for compatibility and… of course, find the funds to buy the latest version of Windows.

A new survey of 1,000 companies by ScriptLogic Corp. found about 60 percent of those surveyed have no plans to deploy Windows 7, 34 percent will deploy it by the end of 2010 and only 5.4 percent will deploy by year’s end.

What’s your take? Will many business users be among the early adopters of Windows 7?

July 13th, 2009

Microsoft shares more developer-focused Windows 7 E details

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:27 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Internet Explorer, Legal, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Developer, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Web Browser, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Web Browsers, Operating Systems, Software, Internet

In a July 13 posting to the Windows Team Blog, Microsoft shared a few more developer-focused specifics about Windows 7 E, its Internet-Explorer-free version of Windows 7 that it is planning to offer in Europe.

Microsoft has said it plans to make the Windows 7 E version available to users in Europe on October 22, the same day that the product is generally available in the rest of the world. The 7 E version will be the one and only version of Windows 7 available to European consumers. Microsoft has proactively removed Internet Explorer 8 from this version in the hopes of appeasing European antitrust regulators who are expected to require business changes (and possibly levy fines) as a result of an antitrust case brought against the company by Opera Software revolving around bundling IE with Windows.

The posting takes the form of a Q&A with Arik Cohen, a Program Manager who is working on Windows 7E.

In the new blog post, Microsoft confirms that the E versions of Windows 7 and the “regular” IE-inclusive Windows 7 ones will be available on MSDN at the same time. Microsoft still has not said what that date will be, though many are expecting it will be shortly after Windows 7 is released to manufacturing later this month.

Microsoft also will make the IE 8 Feature Pack for Windows 7 E, which will allow users to add IE 8 back into Windows 7, available to the public on the Microsoft Download Center “soon after Windows 7 becomes generally available” (October 22), according to the post.

Last I heard, Microsoft still had not delivered to testers builds of Windows 7E. But in today’s blog post, Cohen suggest developers can test their apps for compatibility with it now simply by turnning off IE 8. He said:

“To get the same functional behavior as a clean install of the E editions of Windows 7, go to “Turn Windows features on and off” dialog and uncheck Internet Explorer 8. We recommend testing your application both without a browser installed and with a browser installed (remember to set the installed browser as the default).”

Cohen reiterated that Microsoft has found via its own internal testing that “the vast majority of applications work on Windows 7 E editions without any changes.” He said “this includes applications that use many of the Internet Web Platform embedding methods (including WebBrowser control, hosting Trident, and HTML Help).”

He did note, however, that some Windows apps using the Web browser control may have some compatibility issues when applications depend directly on a specific browser. “In particular, if while using the Web Browser control, you allow the application to open new windows that do not respect the user’s default browser choice, you may see some issues,” Cohen said in the posting.

July 13th, 2009

Microsoft Office Web Apps: No test build until August

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 5:16 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, SharePoint Server, Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC)

Tags: Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Cloud Computing, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Many industry watchers were expecting July 13 to be Microsoft’s coming-out party for Office Web Applications, the company’s Web-centric version of its core Office apps (Word, Excel, poerPoint and OneNote) — and head-to-head competitor with Google Docs.

But there won’t be an Office Web Apps tech preview test build coming today. Or even later this week. Invited testers (and not the general public) have to wait until some time in August for the Microsoft-sanctioned Office Web Apps test build.

(An unsanctioned test build of Office 2010, which included the Web Apps, leaked a couple of months ago. Microsoft has not responded to my query as to whether the Office Web Apps build will be the same as the one that leaked in May or a more recent build.)

Microsoft officials first mentioned publicly Office Web Applications in October 2008 at the company’s Professional Developers Conference. Microsoft offered very few details about what kinds of functionality the Web Apps will deliver and not deliver. (Example: I’ve heard printing directly from and saving to those Apps won’t be possible without passing through SharePoint Server.)

At its Worldwide Partner Conference, which kicks off on July 13, the company is providing some additional details about its distribution plans for Office Web Apps.

As company officials said last year, Microsoft will offer both paid and free versions of Office Web Apps when they ship in the first half of 2010. Consumers will be able to get them for free by downloading them via from the combined Windows Live/Office Live service. Software Assurance customers will have the added option of running the Office Web Apps on premise, accessing their on-premise SharePoint Servers. And Office Web Apps also will be accessible as a set of Microsoft-hosted services (under the Microsoft Online brand).

Using Microsoft math, Microsoft execs are calculating — and touting — that Office Web Apps, once they ship in the first half of 2010, will “be available to up to half a billion customers.” They’ll be available for free to 400 million Windows Live consumers; available via Software Assurance to 90 million Office annuity customers; and to the remaining 510 million existing Office customers via Microsoft Online services.

Microsoft also is running a number of potential final names for Office Web Applications past its customers. in the running: Office Ensemble, Office Equipt, Office Optro, Office Offline and Office ArcLight.

July 13th, 2009

Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 5:16 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, SharePoint Server, Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC)

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

On July 13, Microsoft is slated to make available a limited technical test build of its Office 2010 suite to select testers via the company’s Connect download site.

The new build is not a public beta. A public beta of Office 2010 is slated for later this year, as company officials have said previously. The promised July test build, which will be downloadable starting today, is of Office 2010 Professional — one of the five planned Office 2010 SKUs — only.

(Is today’s tech preview build the same, except for being officialy sanctioned, as the Office 2010 build that leaked in May? That May build was numbered 14.0.4006.1010.  Today’s Office 2010 tech preview build — based on a new leak — seems to be 14.0.4302.1000. So today’s build is newer.)

Microsoft also is making available to select testers this week invitation-only tech previews of Visio 2010, Project 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010, officials said. The tech preview of the Office Web Apps –the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — is slated to be available to select testers some time in August, not this week.

Microsoft officials are planning to announce the availability of the tech beta at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), which kicks off in New Orleans today. The conference is for 5,000 or so of the company’s reseller partners.

All WPC attendees will have access to the invitation-only technical preview program and will receive an e-mail invitation to the program, according to Office officials.

Also on July 13, Microsoft officials are unveiling the five planned Office 2010 SKUs the company plans to make available in the first half of 2010. The current version of Office, Office 2007, is packaged as eight different SKUs. Microsoft officials said they are reducing the number of SKUs to reduce complexity.

Microsoft is not sharing Office 2010 pricing yet, officials said.

The five Office 2010 SKUs will be:

* Office Professional Plus 2010 (available only via volume licensing)
* Office Professional 2010
* Office Home and Business 2010 (the new SMB SKU)
* Offie Standard 2010 (only available via volume licensing)
* Office Home and Student 2010

All five SKUs will include OneNote, Microsoft’s note-taking application. SharePoint Workspace — the renamed and updated Groove offline/online synchronization app, is part of the Professional Plus SKU only. The Ofice Web Applications will be part of the Professional Plus and Office Standard SKUs, but not the other three. However, Microsoft has plans to make the Web-centric Office Web Applications available to a broader set of XP, Vista and Office 2010 users. (See this post on Office Web apps for more details.)

For more details about what is part of each Office 2010 SKU, check out my ZDNet colleague Ed Bott’s post.

Microsoft has scrapped plans for an Office for Sales SKU. The Office 2010 Enterprise SKU, which was listed in an internal slide presentation earlier this year, also has been scrapped, or possibly replaced by another SKU. Microsoft officials wouldn’t say more about either of these SKUs when I asked.

July 11th, 2009

Taking the 'PC' out of the Chrome OS equation

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:51 am

Categories: .Net Framework, App Compatibility, Channel, Corporate strategy, Google, Internet Explorer, OEMs, Research, Resellers, System builders, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Google Inc., PC, Operating System, Google Chrome, Netbook, Miller, PC Operating System, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems

Just when I thought I couldn’t stomach even one more post about Google’s Chrome OS, I stumbled onto Michael Miller’s “Google’s Chrome OS: Maybe Not a “PC” OS After All” piece from July 9.

Reading it, I had one of those “aha!” moments. Miller suggests that those of us who are comparing Chrome OS to Windows (or even to Linux) are comparing tangerines to kumquats. Windows is a PC operating system. Chrome OS — based on the little we know about it — is not.

It’s not just a semantic distinction. A PC operating system assumes users can and will install third-party applications and connect up various peripherals. Chrome OS may not support either of these things, based on early indicators.

Miller explains:

“…  I started thinking: What if the (Chrome) OS really is completely web-focused? If so, a user wouldn’t need–or be able–to download or install any application, or indeed any file. Instead, you’d just use the browser and run a web application, whether Google Apps, or Picasa Web, or Photoshop.com.”

A netbook running such an operating system would be all about Web surfing and not about running local apps, as Miller points out: “No Microsoft Office, of course; but also no Open Office, iTunes, or even a local mail client, although a webmail client could be cached by Google Gears.”

Miller notes that such a system isn’t what today’s netbook users seem to want. Remember all the outcry over Microsoft limiting netbook users with Windows 7 to three concurrent apps — which resulted in the company recently reversing its position?

Miller blogged:

“The first netbooks mostly ran Linux, which again can boot faster, has fewer problems with malware, and is less expensive than Windows. But the vast majority of users wanted Windows XP, because they wanted the interface they were familiar with, application compatibility, and support for all their devices.”

Perhaps netbook makers will create yet another subclass — along the lines of Mobile Internet Devices or “Mobile browsers” as Miller suggests.

And maybe Microsoft’s retort here will be something other than Windows (or its Gazelle browser/OS research project)… Maybe it will be a combination of an embedded version of Windows, with a customized/Alchemized interface running on a new kind of CMD (Connected Media Device)… (Where are you, Microsoft magician J Allard?)

Just some more food for thought… in the absence of any real details (so far) from Google.

July 10th, 2009

Business licensees to get final Windows 7 release in July

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 11:10 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows client, Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC)

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Software Assurance, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft officials have said the company expects to release Windows 7 to manufacturing before the end of this month. But they have been less forthcoming about when users will be able to get their hands on the product — other than users who buy at retail new PCs with it preloaded starting October 22.

On July 10, however, Microsoft notified its reseller partners that it plans to allow business users who’ve purchased volume licenses plus Software Assurance contracts to get Windows 7 before the end of July.

Russian enthusiast “Deeper2K” posted a picture of the partner mailing (in Russian) and tweeted on July 10 that Microsoft has committed to providing Software Assurance users with the final Windows 7 bits before the end of July.

Deeper2K said Microsoft had told partners it was extending a special Windows 7 promotion for Software Assurance users through August 31. Customers who buy Software Assurance by that date will have the rights to upgrade to Windows 7 on PCs they purchased starting on August 1, 2008. Microsoft is offering users 15 percent off the cost of Windows 7 via the promotion, he said.

Earlier this year, Microsoft officials acknowledged they were offering Software Assurance users Windows 7 incentives, but didn’t spell out the particulars. In June, I received this statement from a Microsoft spokesperson:

“For a limited time, Microsoft is offering a promotional price on Microsoft Software Assurance to customers that purchase a new PC with Windows Vista Business. Customers with Software Assurance will have access to Windows 7 Enterprise when it is released. We recommend customers contact their Microsoft Volume License reseller for a quote specific to their business.”

I’ve asked Microsoft for further clarification of the Windows 7 deal it is offering its volume licensees. A spokesperson pointed me to the Microsoft Incentives site. More details are there. Specifically, it says :

“For a limited time, recieve a 15% discount on Open Software Assurance or Open Value Software Assurance attached to new PCs equipped with Windows Vista Business.  This offer will allow you to save on Software Assurance today, while giving you the rights to Windows 7 when it is released. Software Assurance purchases must be made within 180 days of a new PC purchase.” (The “redeem by” and “purchase by” dates are listed as August 31.)

Microsoft is believed by my sources to be a week or so away from RTMing Windows 7. This week, as part of its announcement of the promotion to president of Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft reiterated that it is on track to release Windows 7 to manufacturing in late July.

The company is planning to use next week’s Worldwide Partner Conference as an opportunity to get its resellers ready for the new OS. Microsoft has scheduled 27 sessions dedicated to helping partners make money on Windows 7 through migration, deployment, the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack and other related channels.

Update: Just a reminder: The Windows 7 retail discount preorder program ends tomorrow, July 11,  in the U.S. and Canada.