Convenience, Cost, Quality. That is what drives the general consumer camera market, in that order. If a camera company can find a way to fulfill these areas, they will control the market. Right now the big companies are quite good at Quality, but are loosing to Convenience and Cost as offered by the mobile market. Of course the mobile market keeps offering better and better quality as well, probably already more than the basic consumer typically requires.
It's the same reasons why so many indy video shooters get excited about the 5D. Convenience (not as good as dedicated video cameras, requiring more hacks and work arounds, but very workable) Cost (Excellent value compared to dedicated video cameras) and Quality (Quite Good and in some ways better than expensive dedicated video cameras)
Maybe Nikon and Canon really should start making camera guts and subsequent control/processing apps for mobiles to recapture some of this lost segment.
