Glad you said this. Having a heavy background is statistics, I can say that there are unlimited ways to lie with statistics. In fact, there is a book entitled "How To Lie With Statistics" that is the Bible for many politicians and marketeers (one in the same IMO).

>I give absolutely no weight to the Gartner Group. In my experience they are wrong about 60% of the time. I seem to remember they started the entire VFP is dead issue and we're still here. But then again, it is in their interest to put VFP as a dinosaur so that their "dead" prediction can be true and they can say they correctly called another one.

The next statement couldn't be further from the truth. MS invests millions just to maintain markets. For them to give up market share for anything goes against the grain of the way they do everything. They have to do this and competitive pressures will force the issue even more in the future. This is standard business life-cycle stuff here and I'm surprised JVP doesn't know this.

>>Christof, I am not sure what you are trying to say here. I will say that MS does not, nor will it invest in a market that is not growing, or is not perceived to have any potential to grow. FWIW, MS does invest money in VFP. MS however, will not invest money to the degree that would constitute an attempt to grow the market. For you, I, and every other developer, there is an upside. For MS the corporate entity, and more important, for MS stockholders, which I am one, it is not a good business decision.