I've used freescale, AVR, PIC , z-world and ARM. I think the trend for processors is drifting towards lots of companies supporting the ARM architecture.
I suggest you pick up an ARM variant from phillips or Atmel ,
http://newmicros.com/
I code in ARM GCC using
armlib and a terminal.
You can also code using the free
Keil
I hope IFI realizes that ARM is the future of the industry !