Do not look where the market is now nor even at where your competitors are now. Now is interesting, but it's also largely irrelevant. Look instead at where th

Do not look where the market is now nor even at where your competitors are now. Now is interesting, but it's also largely irrelevant. Look instead at where the market will be when you can get your product out. Do not accept what your customers want now as your future goal. That now will be history when you ship. Listen with caution to your existing customers that either don't or haven't yet purchased the flagship upgrade from the leading vendor in the market. They probably won't buy your stuff in any quantity, either. Existing customers will almost never tell you they want to buy an upgrade. There are other potential schemes - such as parallel product release streams for 10.4 Tiger and for 10.5 Leopard - though these should be approached with caution and particularly with an eye toward the added expenses that will be incurred. These tend to be feasible in larger software products, when there are established revenue streams and customer bases and with the requisite source code management skills and tools present.