As I remember Canon is stuck with its autofocs points because of the flash system which only has compatability with a few variations - from digital picture "The Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash's AF-Assist Beam is aligned with the focus points on all of Canon's EOS bodies - with 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, or 45 AF points. " I'm unsure of how relevant this is when the 7D has 19 or the 1Dx with 61, however the Nikon D700 currently has 51 points and that's not going to go down, a 45 point system still leaves Canon with fewer points, where the 61 point might give them an advantage and still leave enough space between the 1Dx & a Canon 5D MkIII. This is especially relevant if Canon drop the 1Ds line and Nikon moves the D800 to 36MP.
Imagine a not unreasonable spec for the D800 with 36MP, 51 point AF, where is Canons advantage going to come from? Although most buyers at this level won't be buying a first camera, Canon is not going to let its lead slip in every area, and although the 22MP sensor may give better noise and dynamic range, that's not something which makes the spec sheet. I'm unsure about the 7.5fps, the 1Dx can manage 11 with 18MP, but I gather that is because of mechanical limitations, not electronic, so it might well be possible. It's untrue that landscape photographers don't need fps, a hand held HDR always benefits from it being faster.
