Well, it's just a matter of time for the electronics giants, i.e. Panasonic, Samsung and Sony to attempt to carve out a new market segment - it'll be difficult to convert the pros out of CaNikon. Sony, in particular, has committed tremendous resources to the camera business over the last couple of years, but has only managed to jostle in among the smaller players, i.e. Pentax, Olympus.
It wouldn't be surprising to see Sony joining in the fray soon - the three big boys are huge, either one of them are probably bigger than Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Olympus combined. Given that Sony and Panasonic have traditionally been very strong in the digital compact segment, taking the next step to create an interchangeable-lens compact is natural - they've gotten their feet wet in the SLR business, thanks to Olympus, Pentax and Konica-Minolta.
So know-how is not an issue and combining it with deep pockets for R & D, they just may dominate the consumer, the largest and most profitable, segment. In my personal view, the primarily camera-business players such as Nikon and Pentax, may be in for a tough time - Canon and Olympus still have their office automation and wafer fabrication business, and medical imaging business to fall back on respectively. But of course, they'll suffer nonetheless.