It's not just actions that can send wrong signals to a customer, but words, too. From an email from a Nikon employee to a customer: "Compatibility and support for our NEF Codec running on Windows 64 bit system is under review by the Nikon Quality department in Japan. At this time we do not have any time table on when we will or if we will issue drivers and software support for this new system."
If? That gets read by the customer that Nikon is considering no longer supporting the clear future of an operating system (and not just the future, but the present, too, as systems are now shipping with 64-bit support enabled). Now, there may be something more interesting behind that statement--for example, Apple is now supporting raw file formats themselves in their OS--but the customer reading such a statement literally almost immediately sees something potentially sinister in it: that Nikon might never support the OS their new computer now runs by default.
The situation isn't made any better by the fact that Nikon has stopped supporting current OS versions in some of their products, like Nikon Scan.
I've written before about the need for certain "roadmaps." This is one of them. As in "Nikon currently is committed to supporting both the Windows OS and Macintosh OS-X in our software products." And within that statement would need to be a further statement. For example, how long can a user expect to see Windows XP supported by Nikon software? Is support for Windows ME now dead?
Of course, there's a liability that goes along with such a statement. But the liability is far smaller than the positive message it sends to customers it's not a significant issue, IMHO.
While NikonUSA and Nikon Europe may agree with what I just wrote and want to do something similar to what I suggest, they're dependent on Nikon Japan to clearly state their policy.