I hope that eF is committed to Poser and truly makes it their own product. The product will never be what it should be if it keeps bouncing between owners. I would assume that that would mean tighter integration with Shade. Also, If I were them, I would be hard pressed to justify keeping FireFly. Even if they're not paying ongoing licensing fees for it (which they may be), they already have a superb render engine from the images I've seen. People would raise hell but I think it would mean a better product in the long run. I would expect that the functionality now achieved through the cloth room, hair room, etc. would also be replaced by their own 3D technology. Ideally, I'd like to see Poser return to its roots as a posing application with the option to plug into Shade for things like advanced materials, dynamics, etc. Poser itself could feature a subset of the render engine, perhaps better morph creation through a subset of the modeling engine, etc. The key is to make it as seamless as possible and allow easy tailoring of the application to fit each individuals needs. If you want the basic Poser, that's all you pay for. Want the advanced render engine, buy that but skip the advanced modeling/rigging or animation if that's not your thing. That seems to be the approach Daz is taking and it makes a lot of sense. The price for the basic package would hopefully remain in the same range.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken