Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 will be available in March

Microsoft picked a helluva day to make its official Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 announcement -- what with techdom obsessed with the Verizon iPhone. But it's a brave lot of product managers up there in Redmond, Wash., or perhaps employees can't see past the benefits of their free Windows Phone 7 handsets. Whatever, this morning, Microsoft announced that Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 will be available through volume-licensing channels starting in March and from OEMs sometime in second quarter.

Here's the deal: Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 volume-license subscribers get the new version for free. "If customers want to purchase MultiPoint Server today, they simply need to purchase with SA in order to have the rights to MultiPoint Server 2011 upon availability," writes Dean Paron in a Microsoft blog post. Software Assurance customers can get the newer version in March.

Microsoft made the Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 availability announcement at the BETT educational tradeshow in London. The software is designed to give educators and students access to computing resources from a single machine.

"This also means that students and teachers have a customized Windows 7 computing experience -- using their own keyboard, mouse and monitor that are either directly connected to a host computer or through the school's LAN," explains Gavriella Schuster in a Microsoft blog post. "We've been testing the product out in some schools in our own backyard including the Bellevue and Sultan school districts."

My apologies for the quickie post with no analysis. I'll get around to that closer to the software's availability.