Good points, Daniel, but you're incorrect about one thing. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but it's misinforming how you included the figures in that Forbes article about Autodesk. I read that when it was first published, and what they are referring to there have nothing, or very little, to do with Autodesk's studio grade software.  They are talking specifically about their 3d print related apps, with products like 123D Catch, Design, and Make.  The downloads indicated in that article were for their 20 products for iOS, which do NOT include 3dsmax, Maya, or XSI.  So they aren't talking about potential studio seats there at all.

I agree on most of your other points, and I'll have to read that article about Blender through.

---

Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.