I will answer your questions in reverse order:

What happened to version 13, 14, and 15?

In some parts of the world (primarily North America), the number 13 has negative connotations, so marketing decided to avoid the use of that number. In some parts of the world (primarily Asia), the number 14 has negative connotations, so marketing decided to avoid the use of that number.

We could have used 15, but this major release was coming out at nearly the same time as Sybase IQ version 16 and Sybase ASE version 16, so marketing made the decision to synchronize the version numbers, and hence the decision was made to use 16.

SQL Anywhere version 16 is the next major release of SQL Anywhere after version 12.

How much longer with SQL Anywhere 12 be supported?

I would like to distinguish between 2 aspects of "support" as it relates to previous versions of SQL Anywhere:

1. The ability to talk to technical support and receive help and advice.
2. The ability to have bugs fixed by SQL Anywhere engineering, and have EBFs released with those bug fixes.

Answer part 1: It is my understanding that as long as a customer has a valid support plan, the can talk to technical support and receive help and advice on any version of SQL Anywhere. They also can continue to use this forum to receive help.

Answer part 2: It has historically been the practice of the SQL Anywhere engineering team to actively support 2 major releases with bug fixes and EBFs (or the SAP term "SP"). In the past, shortly after a major release, 1 year notice is given for the end of engineering support for the oldest supported version.

How does this relate to today? Now that version 16 is available on all platforms, I would expect that the 1 year notice for end-of-engineering support for version 11 to be announced shortly.

If the historical practice continues, then I would expect to see version 12 continue to have engineering support until at least 1 year after the next major release. This of course prompts the question about when the next major release will occur. Obviously I cannot say anything except to observe that historical practice is that major releases in the past have happened approximately every 2 or 3 years.

Chris