By "Obsolete" I am sure what people are referring to is that the technology keeps on growing with these programs, and what was considered "good" 3 years ago, just wont cut it anymore.

There was a time where simple bump maps on textures was amasing tech and was good. So there are alot of products what are simply textures and bump maps. But then displacment maps came in and people could add even more dimension to the textures. There could be real wrinkles, and all kinds of other data added to make the figure look much better. Then came other shaders like SSS which added even another dimension of details to textures.

Now with the advent of things like HD morphs, the palette of what can be done will grow even more, and people will grow to expect that kind of detail in their sets.

So older products can only be converted to new things so often before people start to realize that that is included in those old sets just doesnt hold up to current standards.

That is why I quite often retire alot of my older characters. Its not that they are not good characters, but compared to what can be done today...they just wont hold up anymore.

So yes...things can get obsolete in this market.

Look how happy people got when v4 got weight mapped....would they be that happy if they were just content with the old v4 as she was?
Would people have gotten as excited about dawn if they were still content with the old v4?

At some level we all are realizing that the old stuff is just not good enough anymore, and we want all the new goodness.