History shows us is that Nikon, in the case of the D1 and D2, first introduces a fast, low-resolution camera. It follows-up with the -x version with double the resolution of the original.

Nikon's botched v1.10 firmware for the D3 of 15 April 2008 supposedly refers to the D3X as 24.4MP.

Looking at announce, not ship dates:

D1: June 1999. D1X and D1H: Feb 2001. That's 1.5 years.

D2H (there was never a D2): July 2003. D2X: September 2004. That's 1.2 years.

D3: August 2007.

That sets a D3X for announcement sometime around August 2008 to February 2009. Simple extrapolation tells us a D3X will be 24 MP and 5FPS.

Big deal, even if something were announced this spring we couldn't get it until Fall 2008, even if we ordered the same day as the announcement.

Nikon's hot new high-end stuff is never available off-the shelf for usually a year or two after announcement. Remember the 18-200mm VR? It was two years before you could get them easily. The D3? Announced August 2007, and as of December 2007, few if any people have theirs yet.

Got something to shoot today? Then use a camera you can get today.

what a crazy lens! What kind of weird lens cover would you need for that thing? What lens is that? (yes, I don't care about the camera as I'll never be able to justify it when I still can't even really justify going to a digital slr over my film (though I might pick up a D80 which has all the features I use)