Sony will do what Sony does, create yet another proprietary lens format.

Since Sony lenses don't fit Nikon whose lenses don't fit Canon whose lenses don't fit .....

so what if Sony invents a new type of lens?

Yes, of course do Sony create a new lens format. Why should they support the competition? Panasonic and Olympics have a cooperation with the 4/3 format. Samsung just created a new format for their EVIL-cameras, and now Sony followed suit. Leica, Nikon, Sigma, Pentax, Canon etc have also their own mount.

Still mean that Sony should say pay samsung for using their lens format? Panny and Olympuses micro4/3 has a smaller sensor size, so that wouldn't be good.

Since the acquisition of the Konica-Minolta photographic portfolio, Sony have been faithful to the MAF mount. They would presumably have also inherited the smaller V-mount used by Minolta on the Vectis S-1 APS Mini SLR and the RD3000 DSLR which would be a perfect candidate for an APS-C or Four-Thirds style application. So perhaps not a new mount but an old one? Would that make everybody happy? The S-1 was a great little camera that squeezed everything possible from the too-little-too-late APS format.

Whatever lens format it uses, the lack of external control dials... meaning that one would be forced to use all menu-driven exposure controls... would be a major deal-breaker.

I'd love to see Nikon support Micro Four Thirds, but I won't hold my breath. The Panasonic GF1 still looks like the EVIL camera to beat.

EVIL

That's the whole point. You buy into a lens system. As it should be. I don't want Canon sharing information with Nikon, and I'm sure Nikon shooters feel similarly. Everyone else is just scrambling for the scraps those two leave behind anyway. Sony is more than welcome to design a lens system that takes advantage of the functions of this new body line, or to continue using the MAF mount as someone said above.

Although, more importantly, if you're not a professional/prosumer camera user who already uses SLR or dSLR technology, why would you even open your mouth about this? Stick to using your RAZR's camera to take pictures of your fat, Jersey Shore-wannabe girlfriend for Facebook. Leave the discussion about photography technology to those of us who make our living with it.

Tammy, Sigma, Tokina, etc. reverse engineer the Canon and Nikon mounts. They receive no assistance or technical information from those two manufacturers in order to make their lenses. Which is fine (I own a Sigma and a Tamron, and enjoy them for their specific strengths) but let's not pretend those third party ever approach the quality of a first-tier lens. Cheaper, yes. Better, no. I don't think an open standard for lens mounts would necessarily do anything but flood the market with more cheap (in both senses of the word) alternatives. Which I suppose is fine for people who are buying a camera beyond their abilities, but it doesn't benefit the intended audience of mid- and high-end dSLRs.