In an interview with the Dpreview team Canon explained why they don’t bet high on mirrorless:
DSLRs can capture the moment better than mirrorless, because you’re viewing directly, not through an LCD.
Another reason is:
In the US, in terms of total number of cameras sold, mirrorless cameras account for less than 20%.
But Canon “will continue to produce new mirrorless cameras and although our competitors in this field are very strong, we hope we won’t be beaten by them.“
Well these are the official answers from Canon. But I do believe they know that if they would go serious with Mirrorless they would have two negative side-effect:
1) They would compete against their own DSLR cameras. Not a smart move seen that they are the king of the market.
2) They would have to publicly the Mirrorless cameras and this would bring attention to a market segment where the competition is very strong.
My two cent: Canon (and Nikon) will only make a serious mirrorless system camera if Sony-Fuji-MFT will start to erode their DSLR market. That’s it.