Nick Hodges just linked to an eWeek article that boldy places the release date of Delphi 2009 as 6 days from now on August 25th.
Embarcadero Technologies plans to release the next generation of its CodeGear—formerly Borland—rapid application development tools for Windows, Delphi 2009 and C++Builder 2009, on Aug. 25.
[UPDATE: This is when they will accept orders, shipping will occur later.]
Rather unusual for CodeGear to announce a release date in this manor. Usually they announce the release date when they release it. Is this a case of eWeek misstating some facts? Not the first time a news article has had some critical facts wrong. Or did they slip up and break embargo and release the release date prematurely? [Update: Nick wasn’t aware that Michael Swindell has given them the date for the article. All above board and accurate though.]
In my podcast on Monday I estimated it as next month, so it looks like I may have been too pessimistic. Be sure this is one of the first questions I will be asking Nick for the podcast on next Monday. Be sure to join us for that one.
In the very last paragraph they also give us the low down on pricing:
North American pricing beginning at $399 per license for Professional editions, $1,299 for Enterprise editions and $2,299 for Architect editions.
[UPDATE: This is upgrade pricing.]
The inclusion of pricing and release dates leads me to believe they have accurate data and just jumped the gun in publishing the article. Or the Embacardo merge has resulted in a new way of announcing release dates and prices.
Also in the article Michael Swindell, Embacardo’s VP of products, was sourced as stating:
In 2006 there were 1.75 million Delphi developers and now there are more than 2 million . . .
Great to see growth in the Delphi community. 250,000 developers, or 15% growth in 2 years is pretty good considering.
In answer to one of the proposed interview questions, the article also states that:
VCL for the Web . . . enables developers to build AJAX and Silverlight-enabled rich intranet and line-of-business Web applications . . .
It also states that the Architect Edition is a new edition. But I did some more checking, and there is an Architect edition of RAD Studio 2007:
Architect gets the full ECO package. Granted I think the inclusion of ER/Studio in the 2009 Architect package is a great upgrade. In additions to this nicely appointed Architect edition, I still am a strong believer in them keeping the Turbo or Personal editions going. If we don’t introduce students, occupational programmers and new developers to Delphi then it will be hard to grow the community.
This very special episode features an interview with Nick Hodges, the Delphi Product Manager for Embarcadero‘s CodeGear. A lot of great information and news on the changes with CodeGear and Delphi 2009. This one is a little bit longer at 38:46 with all that we covered in our interview. You will probably find it just flys by though.