@ John Koerner: I bet few serious pros could pick out a 7D shot from a D300s, after appropriate post-processing, and I doubt that any "shortcomings" in features wouldn't be outweighed by personal preferences - that is, given a bit of time to shoot, Nikon shooters would prefer the D300s, and Canon shooters the 7D. One big difference: the D300s is an minor upgrade, not a new model. Something more interesting may be coming down the road from Nikon.
The new Canon, if it's just what it seems to be, will be an excellent sports shooter (which is to mean, street, wildlife, handheld shooter) just like the successor to the D3 series, whenever that gets here, and I suspect that's close to the sweet spot for most photographers. Higher res cameras seem to me to need tripods and much slower working speeds to maximize IQ. But, I think a complete system needs both. I think Canon will offer both, but we don't know when. Same with Nikon. One thing -- it seems to me that those two companies should involve themselves with some serious Photoshop plug-in company and commission specific software that can provide such things as demosaicing for their high res cameras, so they can get rid of the AA filter...A purpose-built piece of software that doesn't have to be applied to a multi-manufacturer range of cameras might be very interesting, if done by a serious company, and by serious, I don't mean the Nikon, Canon, or Sony software divisions.
I see some problems for the Canon from APS-C rivals like the D7000, which offers very similar resolution and high-ISO performance, at 1/4 the price. I don't fully understand Canon's pricing for this new camera. In fact, the biggest problem I see for this new camera may not involve performance, but perceived value. *What if* Nikon's next offering is a 30+ megapixel with D7000 ISO performance, followed by an updated D4 with performance similar to the Canon's. If you're buying a new system, which would you choose? Nikon may have stolen a competitive march here, depending, of course, on what they come up with.
Somebody here said they like the new camera because more pixels would mean more processing power, etc. I think that's a non-factor for most people - RAM is cheap and getting cheaper all the time. If your computer can't handle 30mp, you need a new computer, and if you're willing to spend almost $7,000 on a camera body, you can probably afford it.