Microsoft has announced yet another delay to its long awaited SQL 2005 database platform and its partner in crime, Visual Studio 2005.  VS 2005 is seen as a major release as it provides the first (at least from Microsoft) well rounded BAL (Business Application Lifecycle) developement tool suite.  This has to be seen as a major setback and amounts to a potential new sales opportunity for competitor IBM and Borland. 

The software maker said Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 will be delivered in the second half of the year. A company representative declined to say whether the company expects to ship the new software in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

Both products have been delayed previously. Microsoft delayed the expected release of its flagship database and development tools from the end of 2004 to the first half of 2005. Both products, which are used to build custom applications, will be shipped in tandem.

On Monday, the company revamped the product pricing scheme and developer subscription service for Visual Basic 2005. The changes are meant to simplify the purchase process and make the cost of the company's tools suites easier to compare to competitive products, said Prashant Sridharan, lead product manager in Microsoft's developer division.

Stay tuned for updates on the release info.