Leica and naming conventions have always been a little odd.
The first legendary M series camera was the Leica M3. The M3 was followed by the M2 then the M1 which never had the following of the original M3. They then went back to their roots and released the film Leica M I own, the M4.
The M8 was the first digital M and many consider it a prototype, with a smaller then full frame 35mm sensor with a crop factor of 1.3 it was never really accepted, it also had two issues, excessive infra-red sensitivity and a very noisy and rough shutter.
The shutter was fixed with the M8.2 was then replaced by the M9 with the same shutter, no infra-red issues and finally full frame.
The M9 became the M typ 240 and its various iterations, and Leica changed their numbering scheme again, just M with a type number, but they also followed this up with the monochrom and the M-E and M-P and now M-D; confused yet?
The M type 240 is now over three years old and we are all expecting the new version soon as is my credit card! Well the latest rumours are that Leica are going back to the old numbering scheme and the new Leica M will be the M10. So far all we have is that it will be slimmer then the Leica M typ 240 and have a dedicated ISO dial. A picture was leaked this week but unfortunately you cannot see much.
Heres hoping we will not be waiting too long.