I think Canon underestimated Nikon and are restrategising. Now that Nikon are a good match for them, they are likely to stop crippling their cameras as much as they used to.
History lesson. 1970-80s - the days of Manual focus. What did Canon have and what did Nikon have? Nikon were leaders then with the F2s and F3s. Canon had the A-1 and F-1 but most pros were on Nikon. I bought a Minolta in 1978? Why, because the Nikon FE was significantly more expensive than the Pentax, Minolta and Canon models. In the 1980s Nikon went downmarket with the EM etc.
Then AF came along and Canon pissed everybody off by abandoning the FD mount in favour of a new EF (larger). Then the EOS-1 came along ..... after 10 years of EF mounts, Canon and Nikon were neck to neck. Nikon was more expensive (e.g. EOS 100 vs F601). Canon went downmarket with the EOS 1000, 5000 (888) and captured market share.
Then came digital and Canon's decision to go it alone and make its own sensors (I know I skipped the Kodak story) whereas Nikon relied on Sony. Very strategic and in the end Canon came up leaders. Nikon have now caught up and overtaken Canon .... but wait a while... does anyone here really think Canon will remain complacent?
Was Canon always the leader? NO. Why is everybody so dissappointed that Nikon has caught up? After all, Canon caught up with Nikon in the 1990s
From 1992 when I bought my EOS 1000F I have never switched systems.
If Nikon and Canon never did race the way they did, we would not have the bodies we have today. Look in the Nikon discussion 2 years ago when Nikon did not have any FF offering - and their high speed offering was a 2x crop at 5MP. It took a long time for them to catch up and overtake Canon (from the D1 days, I think almost 8 years). I doubt Canon will take more than a year to retake their position.
But the dominance is over, like in the old days. And it will be good for us.
I eagerly await the 5D II - even though I am happy enough with my 40D