During quite some time it had been rumoured that there would be a Nikon D900 (or a Nikon D800) to replace the Nikon D3. Quite obviously, the simultaneous development of the Nikon D700 and Nikon D3x led many observers to misinterpretation of the inside signals they were getting in the Nikon naming game. Who really expected to see two Full Frame 35mm digital SLR cameras from Nikon in a few months only?
Now, people are left wondering what Nikon will be preparing next. The obvious move is to complete the Nikon D300 with some new camera that would allow to grab some more market after the still green D300. This should be the… Nikon D400 (no surprise, eh!)
But the D3x (with its out-of-Earth price) and the D700 with its emphasis toward high ISOs (at the expense of high pixel counts) leave a clearly open path for a new camera that would be a direct contender against the Canon EOS 5D MkII and the Sony Alpha 900. Give Nikon a D300 body to cram a 20+ mega-pixel sensor and you should get a… Nikon D800/D900.
I would expect these two cameras to be arriving around mid-2009, possibly in Fall to leave some time to launch an entry-level camera before Summer.