Thom's latest prediction doesn't sound good

Cripes Bob - you are a pedandic cat!

...and you also write like Ken Rockwell.

I'm not sure the classes we use are the classes Nikon uses. I break it up as Consumer (D3200, D5100), Prosumer (D7000) and "Pro" (D300s/D800/D4). It is certainly possible they are deselecting "Pro" DX and replacing it with "Prosumer" FX. It puts a couple of options in each category and gives them steps in price bands.

Yes, plenty of non-pro's use cameras from the "Pro" family. So what? I don't think there are a high number of "wannabe's" in terms of actual volume. Sure there are some soccer-moms with D800's, but in my experience these are the folks who are the serious shooters - birds-in-flight, sports, whatever. You don't have to be a pro to need/want (and use) the features, which mainly boil down to handling and build. As a guy who recently upgraded from my D90 to a D300s (chosen over a D7K for handling, build, etc.), the handling makes a huge difference. I'm so much better with my D300s already than my D90, and I'd really prefer never to go back to that handing design. At this point, if I'm going FF, I'll almost certainly go with a D700 over a D600.

Lastly, it seems like there are a lots of allusions here to sales figures among the products - I'd sure like to see that information.