Why? And - why would they care?
Let's just say for a moment that Canon releases a mirrorless system that obliterates their lower end dslr line - since they'll undoubtedly price it the same as their dslr's, why on earth would they care whether it's "Canon dslr's" running the market, or "Canon mirrorless"?
Because development, design, manufacture, marketing and distribution of a product cost moolah. Mucho moolah.
That's exactly why it makes more sense for them to use a crop-dslr sensor - they already invest a ton of money in it in their dslr's, rather than dropping a ton of investment on a new sensor size.
You just don't announce something that obsoletes a product you launched less than a month ago. Unless it has been a total flop. But T4i seems to enjoy fairly brisk sales, somewhat hurt by the toxic grip debacle. In any case, you want some return on your investment.
I don't think mirrorless would "obsolete" the t4i, even if it did it's a question of "are moms who like the nex because it looks thin going to buy canon - or sony".
And retailers who stock your product don't appreciate moves like that either.
Maybe, except that if the question is between smaller sensored mirrorless and crop dslr mirrorless I don't think they'd care, either way they have to stock one more line of produce.
I could see an APS-C Canon MILC released in say, December - but not right on the heels of T4i.
I would only possibly agree with you if the t4i would some sort of amazing advancement or something - it's interesting, but nothing amazing, imo.
And FWIW, if we look at the amazon top 100, there is not a single APS-C mirrorless there. Not from Sony, not from Samsung. In general, mirrorless system presence on Amazon US top 100 is way weak, while every Canon DSLR except 1D is there.
Which are you trying to argue about - aps-c mirrorless, or mirrorless?
That has been true up to now, I have often been one of the people pointing that out. But today, the Panasonic gx1 is sitting at #1 on amazon's top selling list. Canon dslr's are often in the top 5, but right now the first one is the t3 at #8.
I think Canon looked at this and said "people are finally starting to buy mirrorless, we need to come out with something or we won't be able to get into the market when it becomes popular".
Then the question is what sensor size, and I think Canon probably looked at Nikon's attempt and said "well clearly that approach isn't going to do any good".
That Panasonic GX1 seems an aberration: only 2 days in top 100 - I suspect there has been some massive Independence Day discount on those.
I actually agree with your sentiment - for a long time the mirrorless crowd has spread a lot of ridiculous and stupid overhype, and it's been very rare to find a mirror less camera in the top 100 (though the epl-1 is at #53, 218 days in the top 100 - assumabley because of it's low price).
But there's a difference in choice between:
1. A choice between mirrorless with a smaller sensor at the same price
And:
2. A choice between a larger Canon dslr vs a smaller Canon mirrorless with the same sensor size
A lot of people (though not everyone) would give up the viewfinder for the somewhat smaller size. And it looks like Canon is working on creating smaller lenses - the Panasonic collapsing zoom shows that it can be done, it's just that no one has put much effort into it. The pancake 40mm shows that Canon has started putting some effort into it.
I think, personally, that a mirrorless system from Canon that uses their crop dslr sensors is a lot more appealing than yet another "smaller than a dslr sized sensor" mirrorless camera - there's a bazillion of those already.
