But you're just describing another Daz/V3 situation - not a real alternative. And any new company coming into the market and duplicating the DAZ mode of doing business isn't going to have the DAZ track record of product support behind them - Apollo is a case in point - he lasted a year before being yanked away: so much for an M3 alternative.

Unless big guys like 3D Max or Maya released a cheap hobbyist version of their software tomorrow with included super-rigged figures and 100 pieces of clothing each, textures etc etc with advanced, but easy to use, posing functions and a content store to support it all you're always going to be dealing with the DAZ business model and the limitations of Poser itself as a determining factor in the marketplace. Because DAZ has D|S in development there's always a chance they'll pull something really amazing out of the bag with one of their new figures.

I'd argue the supermodel thing too - from the art here and elsewhere - hobbyist 3D artists WANT big Amazon girls not sickly little Kate Moss clones or the more lanky supermodel types. The want Valjello (sp?) and Royo type Fantasy-Art girls. And as someone else said, it's more the vocal minority clamouring for "real" looking girls - which is probably more indicative of them wanting to get their poser art away from the "stock" look, which I can fully understand.

Cheers