Microsoft Corp. today announced Visual Studio� 2005 Standard Edition, a flexible development tool for line-of-business application developers building Windows�, Web or mobile applications. During his keynote address at Fawcette Technical Publications' VSLive! Orlando, Microsoft Developer Division Corporate Vice President S. Somasegar explained how the full Visual Studio 2005 product line -- including the Visual Studio 2005 Express products, Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition and Visual Studio 2005 Team System -- meets the needs of developers of all levels. The keynote speech and announcements made at the show underscored the fact that .NET developers are realizing enormous return on Visual Studio and the .NET Framework today, and are positioned to lead the industry forward in the Visual Studio 2005 time frame.

"With Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft's goal was to move away from the idea that one tool fits all developer needs," Somasegar said. "Recent third-party studies prove the increased performance, scalability, reliability and developer productivity benefits of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework. Microsoft is taking steps with Visual Studio 2005 to make this even more compelling for a wide range of users."