Why is no new functionality being delivered with Designer?
With the onset of the 10g products, both for the application server and for the tools, Oracle reviewed the products it delivers. The emergence of new technologies, specifically J2EE and UML which are rapidly gaining market acceptance, has influenced the direction Oracle is taking with Designer. With J2EE as the preferred platform, component based, model driven and declarative techniques are provided by and developed in JDeveloper. In other words Oracle sees JDeveloper as being the replacement product for Designer over time.