>> "I'm not sure I understand how you can conclude this isn't something you want, when you haven't seen it."

IMHO, it's because people have very long memories when it comes to Poser, and everyone's still a little gun shy because of the debacle that was Poser 5. We were promised a major upgrade with that version, and it arrived (through no fault of the developers, by the way) half-baked. Only now, with P7, are we finally seeing the promise realized to some degree.

And it's good, BB: but problem is, Poser is finding itself more and more in a reactionary position vis-a-vis Studio. DAZ did pull a good one by keeping the core program free and turning its entire user base into beta testers, thus allowing it to send out incremental upgrades and patches as needed (I lost count of how many there were with Studio 2, well over thirty, I'm sure, and I imagine I missed a few along the way). As a result, no one could ever really complain about something not working right because there would be 2.047281-6583 that would be released to deal with the issue.

But Poser cant work that way. You guys have to test by yourselves (or with your team), and no one in the marketplace gets to see anything until the software is released. With Studio, they just throw it out there, and, no matter how ill-wrought and buggy it might arrive, everyone gives DAZ a pass because it's made everyone part of the process. You dont have that luxury. With you, folks pay for it and then complain — sometimes very loudly — because money has been exchanged.

DAZ also has the advantage because of those fora. Frankly, SM taking them down at CP was a mistake, no matter how underutilized they might have been. DAZ uses those fora to monitor what's going on, and it does so in a very immediate (well, more or less) way. The customer base feels it has virtually full access to the DAZ team because, in a way, it does. Farr drops by and talks to people. Cooper doesnt. And that is a seriously big deal to a lot of people.

So on one hand, we have community-friendly, ready-to-give-away-the-store-at-the-drop-of-a-hat DAZ and on the other, somewhat distant, "we'll talk to you when we're ready" Smith Micro. Your software is being released in a month or two (or so I gather), and everyone's playing coy about it, with one image of Alison. From a marketing standpoint, that's silly, sorry. Maybe you guys dont want to talk about features because of the NDA (and please, spare me on those), hey, fine. But images? Test renders? Let's see 'em! Show us what you guys have in store, even if you cant talk about it! Wow the living crap out of us! Get us excited by more than "well, yeppers, it's coming". Trust me, that excitement will fade real quick, even as DAZ throws more and more teasers out there about its latest product development. You guys really need to start getting pro-active here.

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