Can someone explain the Canon/Nikon cockblocking to me?

I'm struggling to understand why either company waits for one to release before the other? It's not as if Canon can add something new to an existing model if Nikon comes out with something superior (and vice versa)?

I see it mentioned a lot as if Canon is waiting for Nikon to show it's hand but cannot understand the logic behind it.

Have you ever played poker? Or chess?

Gel wrote in post #13005442
I'm struggling to understand why either company waits for one to release before the other?

Why do you assume they're doing that?

I think it would have to do with the momentum of a product launch. The most recent launch will always be what everyone is talking about. For instance, Sony just launched a ton of stuff and everyone is talking about their a77. Once Nikon/Canon announces their new products everyone will talk about them, and compare some. So whoever announces their product last would have the most momentum because it will be freshest in the consumer's mind.

I think they are doing this so that they can adjust their pricing based on what the other company is offering. I remember when Nikon announced they d7000, Canon countered it with a $100 rebate on their 60d. Same with the video game industry, when Sony announced the uber-powered PS Vita, Nintendo cut the price of their 3D-S by a substantial amount.

Yeah its all about phyching the other company out.

as a company your always trying to sell as little as possible for as much as possible.

What stops you from doing that is competition.

I doubt they can change the spec of the cameras under development, but they can either delay or reengineer them, or more likely adjust pricing accordingly.

I believe both R&D depts check the competition but I don't think there's a 'cockblock' happening. Time, money, research, marketing and then release. Can't wait for some new goodies

I wish one of the companies would just suck it up and release details of their next model already

I think that competition is more responsible for driving new product than anything else. Why would/should Canon/Nikon/Sony come out with a new body/lens/feature unless someone else has? It's a wait and see game, with each of them matching and raising the bar with each step.

I would guess it is about adjusting the marketing, rather than the product.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, wondering what would be better than what we have right now. Especially when it comes to the high end professional cameras like the IDsIV. With the economy world wide being questionable, to put another $8,000 camera on the market you'd want to question how it needs to meet the needs of the future. Since it's been predicted by some that 90% of all internet photography within three years will be video, and that printed publications are slowly dying out, that leaves a lot to focus on with the internet being center focus and if the new high end cameras need to stay familiar in ergonomics or become something between video design and still design and how should the sensors and processors be designed to accomodate. And another quesiton I've been asking is, do sensors need to be redesigned for video, is there something that would improve them for this task.

I personally do not think stills are on their way out, but there is a mania for video, the problems lie more with the skills of the video photographers/director​s/producers in the areas where the content seems to suffer by the unskilled methods/sound etc. that will have to be learned. I come out of the film industry after over 30 years experience and there's a lot more different things to know creatively than with stills. Not that it can't be learned but you have to produce something really good to get people to watch a video now that we have access to so much of it instantly on the net.

Personally I only interested in still photography at this point in my life, partially because I can to it all myself, all of the time. Granted you can shoot a lot of stuff by yourself with video too but it's different. I want to tell my stories in a single photograph.

they're both way more successful than any of us, why doubt what they do?

true, they are both more successful then the others, but while canon sleeps, and nikon waists its time with the most pointless mirrorless camera ever, olympus, panasonic and sony are stealing a good chunk of the market, and rightfully so, they are doing mirrorless the right way, and bringing more significant tech to the table.