Surprise, surprise! Fewer creative shops are worried about "keeping up with technology" than they used to be. In our Summer 2000 Design & Production survey, 57% still cited it as a business challenge, but this is down from an all-time high of 72% in Winter 1998. Similarly, 37% of creatives today are worried about equipment that goes out of date, compared to an all-time high of 48% in Summer 1998. Why should you care?... If you're makin' lots of dough from the patch'n'upgrade business then, as they say, this ain't such good news. But as we see it, the quality of creatives' hardware and software tools may be reaching a point where it is good enough (gee, does that sound familiar??) to suit the vast bulk of the work they do, and thus has a longer shelf life. Creatives are no longer drooling at the sound of a new bell or whistle. With any luck, this will slow the pace of upgrade releases--or at the very least have vendors focus on the quality vs. the quantity of upgrades.