Hello photoblog comunity!
A friend of mine is about to buy a digital camera, and she has three options. I don't know how to give her advice, maybe some of you can do it better than me. This are her three options:
1) Olympus E-PM1 1442: http://shop.olympus.co.uk/e_commerce/body-kits/olympus/e-pm1-1442-kit-p-1065-c-69.htm
2) Nikon 1 J1: http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Nikon1/V27528/Nikon-1-J1.html
3) Sony NEX-3: http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&identifier=S_NEX

Thank you so much!!!!!

These cameras are pitched at people who can't get enough out of compacts, but don't want the complexity and bulkiness of DSLRs. However, they all suffer from relative autofocus slowness / inaccuracy compared to a DLSR in the same price range.

Of the three, the Oly has the widest range of lenses (but this may change soon). The Sony was slammed for a terrible user interface when it came out. I don't know whether a firmware upgrade has changed things, but it's worth trying each one in a real store first.

Criticism has been aimed at the J1, but mostly by professional photography writers / photographers (image quality, slowness, high ISO performance, etc.).

What I would tell your friend is this:

"They're all more or less the same, but they're not serious alternatives to a DSLR. They are, however, capable of producing excellent results if you know how to make the most of them. This means you really have to have a feel for the camera so go and try each one. Ease of use can be guessed by asking yourself 'how easy is it to change the ISO / aperture setting?'. The camera that works best for you is the one where the approach is the easiest to answer this question."

I still believe you get more bang for your buck from a DSLR, but that's only my opinion.

side by side comparison would be good . I don't know anything about these new cameras, but the same advice hold true of any camera purchase. Go in and hold them, see what feels good. This seems to be the camera type she's after, so its mostly (I think) about getting what works best in her hands. Also, the Nikon seems to be quite a bit more expensive.

I own and enjoy the Sony NEX 5N (very, very similar to the NEX 3) I can only really comment on the NEX (because that's what I own)
I would agree mostly with revenant on his assessment of these cameras.
The nex line has the same sensor and image quality as a mid level DSLR. The line of lenses are a bit thin but are growing as we speak. The camera body is small but with the lens on it, it is too large to be a "pocket" camera.
I got this camera as my first camera which is better than most point and shoots but if I knew how far I'd get into photography for the same money or a bit more I would have purchased a DSLR from the big three. (I wish I had a hot shoe for a real flash)
Saying all that, I am happy with the picture quality of the NEX line and you can check out my photoblog which all pictures were taken with the Sony NEX 5N
I didn't get the impression you were a manual lens user but I will say this the NEXs are exceptional for shooting manual focus. They have a feature called focus peaking that highlights what's in focus with a color, making it nice and easy to use great old lenses like canon, zeiss, voidtlander, nokton etc via an adapter.

Thank you so much for your advice, i reallt appreaciate your commnets! Thanks a lot and happy new year!

I just read a comparison in the "Digital Camera World" magazine and the three mentioned cameras were more or less neck and neck on image quality and handling so price might be the deal clincher all other things considered. There was another model in the comparison in the same "class" and that was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 that had a noticeably better image quality. It's more expensive sibling, the DMC-G3 was more "feature rich".

Thanks a lot yellodog!