That's a real shame if by that you mean there will never be a Win10 version of IP. 

Hope those plans bear fruit, Brad.

Sorry to hear that the demand is waning to that degree.

'Bout to re-up, here, FWIW, & a Surface Pro 4 likely to be had by spring, so...

What's chicken, what's egg is of little relevance - if SD doesn't anticipate a return on that dev investment, even if that anticipation is wrong, it won't happen.  In which case, we'll never know.  Don't blame them, nature of the biz.

No disrespect Neil, but that has happened since the XP days with IP.

I beg to differ.

-There's a whole new generation out there that for a fact never even heard of skinning or that anything CAN even be done about the looks of the Windows OS.

I am of the firm belief that a wide marketing campaign -advertising, would open up the eyes of the most part of that generation (and a lot of the ones before too that never heard about skinning either) and skinning and windowblinds would have a BIG comeback !

I sympathize with you, neone6, but JcR is probably more right than wrong.

Lots of reasons that interest in skinning in general is down.  For one, as you well know (you do great work, BTW), it's now very difficult to produce a quality skin absent significant skill with graphics apps and TONS of time.  Doing a skin justice is a pixel-by-pixel endeavor and my hat's off to those of you still at it.

For 6 or 7 years I was an enthusiastic WB skinner & spent a fair amount of time doing it as a hobby, mainly for my own use.  Producing a nice, quality skin was fairly straightforward, even including animations, and I could have a very usable one from scratch in a week or three, sometimes more depending on how self-critical I was at the time.  Even published a few (2006, 2007).  Unfortunately, it got to be more like work with Windows7, with a lot more images & details to manage.  Maybe it's just a reflection of my natural interest curve over time, but I don't think I'm alone among folks who've been around WC 14-15 years.  Many/most of the early artists most skilled at WB skinning (I'll use essorant as just one example) eventually moved on.

Even though IconPackager & IconDeveloper have always been quirky enough to be a bit frustrating, at one time I considered doing some IP packages & spent hours attempting to get the hang of creating icons by studying mormegil's tutorials (which are awesome, BTW).  In the event, I found it too complicated and time-intensive for an amateur, part-time skinner like me.

Of course, I've limited myself to WC & SD apps, so there's that, but I think SD have the data & a good understanding of the trends over the past 4-5 years.  My guess is that interest/activity peaked with XP & has been waning since the release of Win7.

YMMV

Well, we have different beliefs apparently

Personally speaking....

Times have changed a lot since Windows XP in regards to Windows, and tech in general. XP, while bringing in a new look compared to previous versions, was still different and being able to change it to something really different and amazing was great -- and fun.

Vista introduced a new look for the OS, and Windows 7 and 8 built more upon that all the way up to Windows 10. For most people, the OS looks fine clean and fine now.

Computing has also changed since the old skinning days with the introduction of mobile technology. I think there are a great deal of people now who don't use the desktop much (aside from work) and just use their mobile devices such as phones and tablets. 

With lots of people content on how Windows looks, it's now moved more over to the productivity side of things. I think that's the reason why apps like Start8/10 and Fences are so popular.

I don't think there's one single reason for the decline in the interest of skinning, but a combination of things such as the ones I mentioned above. That certainly doesn't mean there isn't a future or interest in skinning, it's just moved back into that niche category for a certain portion of Windows users.

Wondering about that interest thing...we all take that as a 'for granted'. Perhaps that should be questioned. Site mismanagement (e.g. Customize.org), etc. don't necessarily mean general public uninterest...

When Jorge introduced Winstep to the German market, he saw large interest despite the fact that Winstep wasn't new at that point...I'm not fully convinced that the market isn't really there if skillfully done marketing done by specialists showing the work of Master skinners applied to W10 were done. If that gets a response, then the logical extension might well be to extend skinning to mobile devices...the only fly in that ointment would be the general lack of interest in Windows phones...

Maybe if there is interest demonstrated by the marketing, MS's Surface devices might be amenable to a modified WB...just thinking out loud...FWIW.

Andy...Brad believes in WB...and his company's products. Don't forget: He's the guy keeping WC alive. 

I just think that yes, the PC market is shrinking and I.D. is correct: The mobile market is the big time. I just wonder whether a simpler WB10 Mobile might not generate business...realizing that the real market is iOS and Android. It might well be that the investment might be large...so that the way to go would be first to see if there's any interest by gauging the response to WB10 in a naive (unexposed to skinning) group of consumers...and crunching the numbers.

At some point at least, say 10-15 years ago, there were some people making skins for the handhelds at the time - Palms and Clie's anyway.  Don't know how that went for them and I didn't follow it - not for my lack of interest in the skins, rather that's when I discovered I had very little interest in handheld devices.  (That's just the way it is for me and I've accepted it, ya a lot of people do have interest in them   ).

Same here, the desktop PC is the only way to go when at home... better screen real estate and easier on the eyes.  And yes, the phone is for making/receiving calls, though I do use mine as a MP3 player and other things while out.  Mostly, though, I use my HP .2-in-1 tablet while out... again, better screen real estate [13.5"] and it has the full version of Win 8.1, meaning I have all the funtionality of my desktop PC at home.

As for the desktop PC being dead, tell the PC manufacturers that, not to mention Intel. AMD, Nvidia and other hardware manufacturers, all of whom having invested heavily in the larger form of computing.  Not only that, I read recently that tablet sales have slowed recently, suggesting that tablets are an 'as well as' rather than an 'instead of.  With most people who wanted a tablet now having one, sales are going to slow, with perhaps some first-time buyers but moreso users replacing older units being the main buyers.