Do they know what the other is thinking? (Canon vs Nikon vs Sony etc)

Looking at the announcement of the Canon SX100 10X zoom, compact body on Monday, and now Sony has just announced the H3 10X zoom, compact body camera. It's impossible that Sony could have made an entirely new design within 2 days.

So do companies know what their competitor is thinking?

Canon 1D Classic and 1D II vs Nikon D1 and D2 series shows the opposite. Ie Nikon couldn't catch up with Canon (but did they know the 1D's were coming?).

Of course they do. There is an entire professional field in Competitive Intelligence where major manufacturers employ specialists that collect information about the competition and analyze what they are doing with product development.

The company I work for does it, so do our competitors. (I'm won't name the industry I'm in though)

Yes, they do. And they position themselves accordingly. Few products hit head-on, except at the low-price end where there's very tight competition.

jwil wrote in post #3776768
Of course they do. There is an entire professional field in Competitive Intelligence where major manufacturers employ specialists that collect information about the competition and analyze what they are doing with product development.

The company I work for does it, so do our competitors. (I'm won't name the industry I'm in though)

Is that what they call corporate SPIES these days???

jwil wrote in post #3776768
Of course they do. There is an entire professional field in Competitive Intelligence where major manufacturers employ specialists that collect information about the competition and analyze what they are doing with product development.

The company I work for does it, so do our competitors. (I'm won't name the industry I'm in though)

Is it the automotive industry?