The prices will achieve a level that the current market will bear. That "current market" changes. As it gets bigger, prices gown down. When it gets smaller, prices will go up because not as many units can be sold. (There is no per-unit cost to consider in manufacturing in regards to scale. Being a digital product, it's a one-time manufacturing cost.)

So... Where does that leave the current Poser market? What's happening with Poser is that innovation has seriously erroded its market share.

What should they do in response? Innovate!

But, they have to consider add-ons and 3d content sales, as well. They should be producing content that is compatible not only with Poser, but DS as well, if they're worried, there.

DAZ is a both a manufacturer of a platform and content for that platform. One shouldn't wonder that they seem to have more content for their new platform distribution than legacy or competing platforms...

On prices, in general - Times are tough and people are trying to make their car payments by selling "stuffs" for 3D. Rendo and other distributors and marketplaces have to pay their employees and keep the lights on, too. Things change.

Why pay? It's terribly easy to create 3D objects and textures, yourself. There are plenty of free resources for doing that. Creating "quality" content for yourself is a bit more difficult. But, you can certainly do it, if you take the time to learn how.

Not everyone has the time or inclination to create their own stuff and many people just like working with new products, for the fun of it. That's fine, too. If you're a "Whale" buyer of 3D content at any of these sites, then joining their premium discount club might be a viable option for you.

For myself, the only thing I don't try to do myself is hair. I can't stand modeling hair... I'll buy truly custom morphs, every once-in-awhile, or nice utilities and scripts, but that's about it. I don't think I've bought any clothing in years. The one thing I might consider buying are very detailed custom objects, props, scenes and the like that I would like to muck around with, but don't feel like creating myself.

I agree with Cheers that the competition is better for us. But, I'd like to say that in this particular market, too much competition between leading companies could be worse for us all. Imagine what would happen to the market if Poser and DS content products became completely incompatible because the two main competitors went to war? That would be... hell for users. That's likely why Poser now has hooks that DAZ can reach in order to code their new importer for the Genesis line. Smith Micro worked with DAZ on that and they accomplished it, together. Let's hope that level of "friendly competition" stays the same.