With competition from Playstation Home and other such social worlds barking at the doorstep of SL they've done well to refocus on business and education this year. It'll give the new players some time to redefine the market while LL concentrates on next steps.

From most of the reports I've heart though, business and Edu entry into SL has been predominantly on an experimental basis. Very few players have come in with a long term virtual worlds strategy tied to SL - instead they've come in testing the waters with pilot projects.

I have no doubts that we'll see solid business uses emerge out of this, but if AVWW banter was anything to go by SL (and virtual worlds in general) are still seen as an emergent technology, not quite ready for the mainstream. I have no doubt some folk have cast their vertict, but my impression is the majority of the jury is still out.