Steve, please keep in mind that Sigma shooters don't have the best of reputations in the general photographic community. Many people see folks like DaSigmaGuy and Mr. Matson as typical of the Sigma users. But most rational people also know that every family tree has a few nuts, and take that into consideration.
But when the whole Sigma user community is tossing out insulting terms like "The Canikon empire", it makes people thing that the whole bushel of apples is rotten. Don't insult the people you're trying to pursued...
are not going to produce a high end / high IQ
compact anytime soon for 2 very simple reasons :-
1) Anything in a compact format that approaches DSLR IQ is going to
have a detrimental effect on their DSLR/lens cash cows. Canikon are
not silly enough to shoot themselves in the foot.
That argument is invalid, for four reasons.
First, a DP1 sells for more than a "cash cow" entry level DSLR and kit lens such as Canon XTi (450D), Nikon D40, Oly E410, etc.
Second, back in the film days (that's just 6 years ago, by the way) Canon, Nikon, Oly (especially Oly), Pentax, etc. all had compact 35mm fixed lens cameras (often with 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1 zooms) on the shelves right alongside their film SLRs.
And third, the original poster mentioned Nikon, Canon, and FUJI (emphasis mine). Fuji doesn't sell lenses for SLRs. Their lens sales only come from their point and shoots (and their medium format market, but that's a different division of Fuji). And Fuji makes their own APS sensors, so an APS compact is a super-duper, ultra-milky cash cow for Fuji: lens, sensor, electronics, mechanism, the whole shebang. Panasonic and Samsung are also looking to move sensors, as is Sony. It's raining cash and cows! Panasonic, Fuji, Samsung, and Sony all play in the SPAS ("Super Point And Shoot") arena, with cameras that look like little DSLRs, cost more than entry level DSLRs with kit lenses, and often have pretty impressive capabilities).
Fourth, upgrade ability is a great selling feature. People buy an upgradable PC over a closed box, even though industry figures say that the upgrade rate for processors is under 1%. The average DLSR user owns 2.2 lenses (CIPA 2007 figures), across the entire camera line, including people like me who own dozens of lenses. At the entry level DSLR, it's down to 1.6.
2) The current 'state of the art' allows you to have a small
sensor/flexible lens type compact (ie..G9) or a large sensor/fixed
lens type compact (ie..DP1) but the current 'state of the art'
doesn't allow you to have a large sensor/flexible lens arrangement
and still retain the compact format.
Actually, it does. They did it with film cameras, years ago.
Never say never, but I am pretty sure we are still a few years and a
few technology leaps away from the ideal large sensor/flexible lens
compact
We are infinitely far away from the "ideal", but the "usable" is here and now.
--
Normally, a signature this small can't open its own jumpgate.
Ciao! Joseph
http://www.swissarmyfork.com 
