In addition to Cirrus's marketing, I think that the "smart conservative pilot" population, which has been the Mooney mainstay for decades, is shrinking due to attrition due to old age...
I read some article in a US mag saying the Oshkosh visitor age profile is getting 1 year older every year, which bodes poorly for all the traditional 1950s riveted-metal merchandise. When you look at a Saratoga, covered in zillions of protruding rivets, makes you wonder whether anybody remotely style-conscious would ever buy such a thing. Evidently, not many do...
Composite construction is the future of manufacturing a lot of things, aircraft included.
Very true, but it is a real shame that "US Marketing" has decided to con everybody with a fixed gear plane (when a retractable version would have gone 10-20kt faster; equivalent to a LOT of horsepower at the relevant speed) on the promise of cheaper insurance (false) and "much" lower maintenance costs (false, especially against the extra fuel burnt).
If Cirrus made a retractable, it would have been pretty amazing.