Will the Nikon-1 catch on? Mistake to reject an open standard like M4/3 ?

I think Nikon didn't do m4/3 for the simple reason that it was too similar to the APS-C-sized cameras, which are their best sellers. They now have a nicely varied series of steps in their sensor sizes: FF, APS-C, N1 and then the compacts -- and the compacts go from big cameras like the P7000 to shirt-pocket cameras.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Canon make the same choices. Nikon and Canon both have extensive systems, and Nikon at least has made provision for its big-system lenses to be used with the N1 cameras, which further binds big-system users to the N1 -- the N1 has pretty good image quality, and you can, right now, get a superb 180-540 (equiv) lens for the N1 by buying (or owning, because you're a Nikon shooter) the f2.8 70-200.