This is absolutely true.  SS is moving things in the right direction, and not cutting royalties in the bargain. 

It's several years since Istock could fairly be said to be holding up industry standards and prices.  I really don't believe Istock can be taken as a single entity anymore.  Their absorbtion into Getty is pretty much complete, and Getty certainly has jumped onto the subscription bandwagon with both feet. 

Getty's subscription offerings, Photos.com and Thinkstock offer a far less appealing deal to contributors than SS does.  Not only are their commissions to a majority of their contributors far less than SS, they also do not credit contributors on the site, and offer no transparency whatsoever.   

The list of their shortcomings in comparison to Shutterstock is long and has been discussed here ad nauseum.  So please don't hold Istock/Getty up as any sort of example of moving the industry in the right direction.

You are absolutely right about depending on where you live.  I lived in Miami for 16 years prior to moving here.  Even though Miami is almost 300 miles further south than we are, their climate is much milder.  Being on the Atlantic coast, rather than the Gulf, gives a much cooler ocean breeze.  Also, being on the tip of the peninsula, there is a great cross breeze all the time.  Even the hottest summer months, Miami is much more temperate than Tampa.

The people in Tampa area are much friendlier though, and there is a lot less crime where we live here.  So there are always tradeoffs.  If you decide to come to Florida in the heat of summer, though, I suggest the Atlantic coast.  

   Hello all. I'm new in this forum and in microstock too. My experience with SS is becoming more and more weird. Maybe you can help and explain what's happening.
   I passed the test in march, from the second attempt, and was very happy about it. I was uploading to other sites for about a month, and I thought, now with SS, I'm in wonderland. I must say that I have entry level equipment, and I shoot for about one year and a half, one year with a bridge and then with a DSLR. I'm a beginner and I shoot for fun, but my numbers are I'd say, too low, and the graphic showing an incredible decline, despite I submitted more photos:
march - 44 files - 7dls - 1.75$
april    - 74files - 19dls - 35.76$, and I thought, ya man, this is SS
may    -113 files -29dls - 12.14$, beginning to come back on Earth
and then...june...
25.06 - 168 files - 21dls - 5.25$...
  Another interesting thing is that, in the first month, with 20-30 files, my record of dls per day was 3. After about 4 months, this remains the maximum number of dls per day- this month with only one day like this.
   Curious about your beginner experiences at SS, maybe I'm wrong about it. Thank you all.