It has already been heavily hinted at elsewhere that Poser 9 will have weight mapping - and not just at DAZ. So, given that I upgrade Poser on day of release I'm really not worried about that.

The risk for DAZ is if they release before a new version of Poser and lose a lot of early sales - they may get them back later but the initial sales could be poor. The other problem for them is that a whole lot of users will be ballancing new rigging features against what they can do with the 4th generation figures and all the stuff they have bought for them.

Personally, as much as I like the idea of weight mapping, I can't even begin to consider buying all the same sort of stuff again just so that I can do the same things I do now but a little better. I have a solid collection of textures, I have a good collection of interesting morphs, I have an excellent collection of hair models, I have more clothes that I actually use. The cost/benefit ratio just isn't right for me. In fact, most of my spending now is on props and places and the new rigging doesn't matter one jot for them.

And who knows - perhaps, if SM really have gone with a new rigging system, they might find they are better at implimenting than they have been with the old and provide us with some nice new figures with the software. It could happen. Possibly. Maybe.

The point is, a new generation of DAZ figures isn't taking down the Poserverse just yet, so let's not worry.