The issue going forward on figure development both male and female is resources.

I'm going to use Antonia as my example because I feel she has been the most successful independently created figure in the last several years.

Antonia was a community creation. I have no idea how many people worked on her, but I know it was a sizable number. I'd really be interested in seeing the man-hour figure invested in her. I bet it's huge.

Let's look at what we got for all the time and effort:

1. We got a mesh that bends beautifully, but a shape that is (to put it kindly) quite plain. (I personally think she's butt-ugly out of the box, with a body only a mother could love, but that's just me.)

2. We have several morph sets, none of which is "official" and none of which matches the accuracy or versatility of Daz's morph++ for V4. In short, I can't make her into what I want.

3. We have very few available textures, and those that are available are quite plain.

4. We have only very limited vendor support. (see #2 above) I know... the knee-jerk answer is: "Make your own _________."

NOT an acceptable answer IF you want the character to have wide use and acceptance among any group other than the type person who lives in these forums. Most of us do not have the talent/ability/knowlege to "roll our own." Besides, that is not what I want to spend my "Poser" time doing. I'm an illustrator. I make tableaus. The fact that the marketplace exists and is the primary function of the Renderosity site supports the contention that the vast majority of users depend on the talent of the vendors to provide the raw materials for their renders.

Viewing the above, we've seen what the community is capable of doing on its own. While the results have shown great talent, they don't show commercial viability. My own opinion becomes "The next great figure will come from a commercial enterprise willing to put the combined manpower of multiple artists behind it, with the ability to create a complete, integrated product ready to go at the moment of release." There will also be at a minimum a starter support set of clothing, underwear, shoes, and hair (or fits). The figure must have out-of-the box attractiveness and at least two or three mats included (to appeal to the very large group of casual Poser users) and high accuracy and flexilibility (to appeal to the power users who worry about the details.)

Sound familiar?

It's the Daz model.

No, Daz is not the only company with the resources to do it. Smith Micro could, were they willing to put the manpower behind it. I'm not sure if Rendo or RDNA are large enough, but I suspect they are IF they see a chance of getting vendor and community support to bolster their investment in the figure itself. 

An individual COULD do this, but I doubt they could if they have a regular job to go to and eat up 8-10 hours of each day. Anton did it with Apollo (sort of.) I'm not saying the OP couldn't bring this off, but I suspect it would be a fulltime job, and by the time it was ready to go, Poser 10 would make it obsolete.

I return to my case: Some commercial entity with the bucks to put a couple fo people on the payroll would make the most sense. I just have no idea who it might be that is willing to make the investment.