I remember starting with Poser 1. I had an immediate use for it then and ultimately expanded on its use in various business projects. Poser has been accused of being a one trick pony for many years and it still around with a large base of support. I don't expect that to change anytime soon. Of course Poser has changed hands more times than a user can be comfortable with and Smith Micro seems the oddest owner of the lot.

With that said, I have no compelling reason to upgrade to Poser Pro. 7 does what I need it to do with DS is quickly becoming more competitive. That doesn't mean Poser is going to die on the vine, it just means Smith Micro is going to have to engineer a purposeful upgrade to get people to part with their money.

To draw parallels I compare Poser 7 to Lightwave 9.
After 13 years I'm moving to XSI as Lightwave is showing its age just like Poser is.
Lightwave and Poser are in a state of a much needed overhaul. But just because many Lightwavers are moving to XSI doesn't mean Lightwave will go the way of the Dodo. So long as both programs can rally their price point while expanding their feature set, they will continue to sell in the hobbyest markets.