A comment from a naive on-looker to this debate (which by the way reminds me of school-yard stuff!).... How many universities and colleges use SPSS and how many use Statistica? How many federal government agencies/state government and municiple governments use each? Reading thru peer reviewed professional journals in any research field, how many researchers referenced SPSS in their methods section and how many referenced Statistica?

No, I do not work for SPSS, Inc. ! From a user's perspective (a professional user) the differences in the two products that were identified in the Mag. article are inconsequential (?not statistically significant). I go with what I was trained to use, with something that seems to be an industry standard / leader (SPSS or SAS for example) unless the differences are overwhelming.

Just a comment from the peanut gallery.