Originally posted by Mark Ransom The danger of not recouping investments exists no matter what. If somebody decides to get a Sony rather than a Nikon, how does that recoup the investment?
You should never be afraid to compete with yourself, because others won't be so shy. Sony is certainly going to take advantage, and it will be interesting to see what Canon does next.
Competing with oneself does not make any money unless the new product is either really cheap to develop (a good MILC and lens portfolio isn't that cheap) or has really high profit margins (unclear with the more costly electronics inside MILCs). If Nikon MILCs only steal marketshare from Nikon DSLR, they've lost. Nikon only wins if they steal market share from Sony, Canon, etc.
Done wrong, Nikon will lose more money on the Z6 and Z7 than if they just let Sony win a few sales.