"I doubt they would make it a standalone. More likely they'd incorporate it into Maya, or Max or Softimage, or all three, and call it a standard feature which wouldn't add to the price." 

I'm not sure how that works. Poser is about pre-built, high polygon count pre-rigged, built in morphed figures. Everything I've read about the Max/Maya world seems to be the antithesis of that. I think that AutoDesk has a pretty good take on their primary market (as does SM for that matter), and that would preclude such a move on their part. If they ever decide to move in that direction, promoting it for pre-viz perhaps, I would think that they would be better served to create their own, or incorporate MakeHuman's technology rather than face the daunting task of cleaning up and integrating Poser's codebase.

"Well I guess then they should call it Poser Advanced or Poser Almost-Pro. ;-)"

Perhaps borrowing a term from the electronics industry, "Prosumer," an amalgam of professional and consumer. You can buy a camera with better lenses and more controls that is a step up from the Best Buy special but less capable than a pro rig.

The irony here is that the "real professionals," if you're talking Hollywood etc. who do use Poser for storyboards or pre-viz probably value it for it's wealth of cheap content, speed and ease of use. It's a quick and dirty solution. They're probably not concerned IDL in FireFly, they have MentalRay and PRMan and Poser's output is never meant to be on screen anyway.

Now there are certainly "real professionals" who rely on Poser as their primary tool, along with talented and dedicated hobbyists who who want Poser to have all the bells and whistles from ZBrush to MotionBuilder incorporated into a professional version - and some of them would even be willing to pay the higher pricetag but as I've often said, I'm doubtful that they represent more than a relatively small (albeit possibly growing) percentage of overall sales at present.

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