Microsoft Corp. this week gave itself more wiggle room for shipping the Visual Studio 2005 development tools and SQL Server 2005 database lineup.

Microsoft, which had been planning to ship VS and SQL Server 2005 in the summer (see story), now says it plans to ship the tools and database in the second half of 2005, according to two company spokeswomen.

The second beta release of VS 2005 is set to be available during the first week of April.

"[Microsoft] wants to provide a timeline for customers so they can plan, but they need to take the feedback from customers and make sure they ship a quality product," a spokeswoman said, referring to the modified ship date.

Feedback from the Visual Studio Beta 2 release "will give a better idea for when they can ship," she added.

The company said today that pricing for Visual Studio 2005 will range from $49 for the Express Edition to $799 for the Professional Edition. The price tag for the Professional Edition increases to $2,499 with a premium MSDN license. Volume licenses for the Team System start at $3,191.

(Marc Songini contributed to this story.)