diogenese19348 posted at 8:41AM Sun, 01 July 2018 - #4332187

It seems to me the topic has gotten a bit off track. For Smith Micro (or anybody else for that matter) to continue development work on Poser, there has to be the financial means to support said development work, it isn't cheap to do. Smith Micro's graphics revenue has been falling down a hole as of late, read the quarterly reports if you're interested in the details. DAZ made the decision back in 2010 or so that the development work would be supported by content sales - either their own, or through their brokered site, rather than direct sales from the program itself. Apparently that model is working.

Smith Micro is still trying to support Poser Development by selling upgrades to Poser. That has never worked particularly well as evidenced by all the versions of Poser that are still in use, contributing to the support hell for PA's. Right now it isn't working at all, and unless Smith Micro can figure out how to market Poser to a new group of users as well as sell upgrades to existing ones. In other words, it's a marketing problem.

It isn't a matter of Daz Studio's merits vs Poser, or V4's merits vs the Genesis Line vs Poser Human figures, or even PA support for Poser here, it's a matter of Smith Micro figuring out how to position its own products to support continuing development.

If they can't come up with a coherent positioning of Poser as a product to a sufficient number of artists to maintain development then it's going to fail.

Sadly Smith Micro's focus is not marketing to a retail environment - it's primarily a business to business company. Which is why it's graphics division has suffered since it is primarily retail.

SM has shifted focus a long time ago. The graphics division is doing very well with anything but poser. Software like Rebelle and Clip Studio Paint are selling very well, are immensely popular. They get all the attention. Poser is and always has been the stepchild within SM's software family. For all these years it seems to me that SM still doesn't understand poser and it's users. With every new poser release I always get the feeling that they missed the mark once again. Poser is in desperate need of a complete overhaul, a modernization to bring it into the 21st century. It needs a whole different approach to appeal to a new audience, but catering to the old crowd is keeping it back. They need a fresh new approach, but I'm sure SM isn't the one to do that. Poser perhaps isn't dead yet, but sure is dying and the big question is if SM still wants to pour in finances to revive poser. I doubt that, since it's long overdue by now. SM needs to put the step child up for adoption and give it to a family that really loves it.

Artwork and 3DToons items, create the perfect place for you toon and other figures!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=23722

Due to the childish TOS changes, I'm not allowed to link to my other products outside of Rendo anymore :(

Food for thought.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZw0dfLmLk