I think the difference in philosophy between the two companies is DAZ's product is the content - the program is just the means to use it. With Smith Micro, the product is the program, the content is just what it creates. The difference is the program can only be sold once per user - Smith Micro either has to grow it's user base or sell upgrades to recover it's development costs. DAZ on the other hand can focus on creating new content, changes to the program can be incremental, and they don't have to package them to justify buying an upgrade.

A lot of us that do 3D art do not have the time to create all the content from scratch, even if we took the time to learn the programs well enough to do it. We pay someone else to put those building blocks together so we can make our art. That's why sites such as this one exists.

Smith Micro, in any of their products, has never been focused on the end user, they are focused on business to business sales. If you look at the company itself that becomes obvious.

Sadly Poser ended up in the wrong hands.