Dynamics Ax 4.0 was launched in July 06'

The good the bad and the ugly surrounding the release of this long awaited upgrade to V3.
V3 was launched in September 2002 which means that it took Microsoft almost 4 years to launch a new version after V3.

Version 2.5 was launched in Dec 2000 and 2.1 in 1999 and 1.0 in April 1998.
It seems the product launch cycle is getting longer rather than shorter.
One could ask the question what happened.

If one compares with the other product Navision that was acquired at the same time in July 2002.
The Navision product group brought out 3.0, 3.1, 3.5, 3.7, and 4.0 during the same time frame each of which added functionality to the product.

It seems the Ax group was sitting on it's laurels, and inovation was only forthcoming from the partners through their many add-ons that functionally completed the product or vertically adapted the product.

I do not have any official story behind the above, however I have noted that at many times during the above period of time, we heard as dealers that there would be a new version and product scope was being discussed etc etc but at no time until Jan Feb 2005 was there evidence of any real project with concrete plans for any future versions.

What were the Ax developpers doing during the interim time frame ?

I believe they were otherwise engaged, all we can do is ask.

However the result is that Axapta as a product which when it came out was revolutionary and ahead of it's time has lost out.

Hopefully the MS Dynamics product group with Satya now firmly in charge will get down to the nitty gritty of providing us with a series of new versions at a more consistent and advanced pace.

/Sven Jochimsen