In some ways, Canon is like Intel... Nikon like AMD... AMD once beat Intel to the 1Ghz mark, caught it napping, because Intel was both arrogant and lazy... but then it came back with a Bang and AMD is still playing catch up after a decade...
Err, you are forgetting that Nikon used to be the 800 pound gorilla in the industry, not Canon.
So, according to your analogy, Nikon is now coming back to raclaim their leading position.
Nikon is already feeling the pressure and competatively pricing it's products trying to get back market share...
Again, incorrect.
Recently, Canon has been (grossly?) overpricing their products - in what looks like a misguided attempt to position themselves as the Apple of the camera industry (or something like that).
To see the results of this overpricing strategy, though, just look into the last quarterly results from Canon and Nikon.
Last quarter, Canon's DSLR sales were down compared to 2011.
Canon also lowered their outlook for the year ... for a second time this year.
In comparison, Nikon's DSLR sales were up compared to 2011.
Nikon also revised their yearly projections ... upwards.
FYI, Canon projects sales of 8.8 million DSLR units in 2012 vs 7.1 million for Nikon.
If the last quarter becomes a trend, it won't take too many quarters before Nikon passes Canon as the industry leader.
So, expect Canon's overpricing strategy to be abandoned sometime next year - after they have had two-three more quarters like the last one.