There are many reasons why you should be a PowerBuilder developer, but here are my top 10:

1. PowerBuilder positively impacts your bottom line.
Simply put, PowerBuilder is a smart business decision. Many companies have a significant amount of existing PowerBuilder code (in fact, it's estimated that most Fortune 500 companies have huge amounts of PowerBuilder code), and it just does not make sense to toss it out and rewrite it for the sake of rewriting. Why choose another IDE/vendor to transform applications when you can transform these applications right from the source?

2. PowerBuilder is low risk.
PowerBuilder has been around since 1991 and is a proven technology that gets the job done. Moreover, PowerBuilder continues to incorporate the latest and emerging technologies. It has stood the test of time. Customers can be confident to continue using a tool that has withstood so many changes, and continues to evolve. PowerBuilder recently won the Visual Studio Magazine's Readers Choice Merit Award!

3. PowerBuilder enables you to use new and emerging technologies and support current standards (without incurring a learning curve).
PowerBuilder has always abstracted the complexity of application development so you can focus on solving the task at hand and provide solutions to business problems. With declarative programming support for AJAX, and built-in support for .NET and Web services, to name a few, you are able to meet the requirements of your organization without a significant investment in both time and money to learn new technology. Your PowerBuilder skill-set is all you need to move forward.

4. PowerBuilder future-proofs your development.
PowerBuilder continues to evolve and incorporate new and emerging technologies into the product - that's what PowerBuilder has always done. This means that you'll always be on top of the next big thing, just by using PowerBuilder. So, the application you have today can be extended with Web services or even deployed as a .NET WebForm or WinForm. And, as technology marches on, so does PowerBuilder. The most recent version of PowerBuilder 11.5 extends .NET interoperability and features innovations to the DataWindow (http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1057555).

5. PowerBuilder developers can easily extend applications to mobile users.
PowerBuilder developers can deploy applications to end users on Tablet PCs with PowerBuilder, or they can leverage their code and redeploy applications using PocketBuilder, and bring enterprise data to their organization's road warriors running Windows Mobile Smart Phones. PocketBuilder recently won a Gold Star product award in the category of Enterprise Software: Application Development (http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1060984).

6. PowerBuilder supports heterogeneous development environments.
Most companies today have a mix of applications, some built in C/C++, some in .NET, and others in Java. PowerBuilder can communicate with all of these other programs and services, making you the most productive developer in your organization - just using one tool to seamlessly bridge the programming language barrier.

7. PowerBuilder has a loyal user community with a wealth of knowledge, experience, and commitment to the product.
Customer loyalty and passion about a product is something every company desires. PowerBuilder has been fortunate to have a very longstanding loyal user community who is as passionate about the product. They are also an enormous resource for each other, with knowledge, skills, and experience to share. There is a lot of wisdom in this base and commitment to continued use of the product. There are tens of thousands of active PowerBuilder users today.

8. PowerBuilder is focused on the needs of the PowerBuilder developers.
Sybase's main goal is to ensure that they meet, and exceed, the needs of the loyal customer base. Sybase carefully watch the market and monitor new trends, and they choose to support those that are most relevant to the needs of the development community. Sybase puts the client first, and are not going to get sidetracked with technology or features that do not provide core value.

9. PowerBuilder doesn't have to reinvent the wheel.
Sybase will continue to leverage the vast set of services in the classes that Microsoft has worked hard to provide in the .NET Framework, and then make it easier for the developer to access them. Sybase does not want to spend time on reinventing the low-level functionality that Microsoft has already done. Instead, they simplify and then focus on differentiating PowerBuilder while providing the developer with the solution that makes it easier to develop with PowerBuilder than with any other tool.

10. PowerBuilder gets the job done.
At the end of the day, delivering a timely, robust product is your goal, and Sybases. PowerBuilder is the tool that enables you to use your existing skill-set, your existing code, and deliver a new application or extend your existing applications quickly and easily.