It is interesting to ponder over the late entry of Nikon into the professional mirrorless segment. Both Nikon and Cannon were late in catching the mirroless wave, partly because Nikon and Canon crop DSLR lines were profitable and well established among entry level consumers. Hence, it is reasonable to assume that there was no desire to affect these lines negatively. Moreover, at the time with heavy weighters Olympus and Panasonic and later on with super heavy weighters Fujifilm and Sony, competition in the mirrorless segment did not fall in favour of Nikon and Cannon. Consequently, we noticed weaker entry level mirrorless Nikon 1 around 2011 and later on better quality mirrorless cameras manufactured by Canon as seen in Canon M lines.
The major change that must have impacted Nikon’s decision to consider the more professional mirroless segment has been Sony’s immense success with the Alpha series, especially Alpha 7s and post 2015 release of the Alpha 7ii and 2017 release of Alpha 9.
It is very interesting to see how Nikon mirrorless will be received by users across the board and by Nikon lovers. The buzz points to Nikon building the new mirrorless on its best design tradition as seen in great cameras such as Nikon FM2 and Nikon DF.