So why wasn't the 200-400 included in the announcement? I too want to know more about the lens.
The 200-400mm L does not officially exist, only a photo of a model and a statement that it was under development. When it is ready, then they will officially announce it. It might be available late next year.
So far in the past year every single lens that has been announced has not be ready, in other words they are all in development.
From dpreview: CP+ 2011: Canon has announced it is developing the EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x lens, which features a built-in switchable 1.4x teleconverter. With the converter engaged, it becomes a 280-560mm F5.6 lens. Designed for sports and wildlife photographers the lens will feature weatherproof construction and is scheduled for launch later this year.
So Canon made a statement about when it was due and they have not updated that statement yet. I'm just pointing out that an update, if one is needed, would have been nice.
What makes you think "it might be available late next year"? Pure speculation if you ask me.
Its a matter of terminology. A launch is the official announcement of a product being ready or already in production.
The launch announcement will usually, but not always give a availability date, usually 2-6 months after the launch if things go right. So its just a guess, but if a launch is announced later this year, it certainly stands to reason that the availibility date will be some time after the launch which will be into 2012.
As for the other lenses you mentioned, they did have launch announcements, but they later announced production problems, and then the earthquake stopped production, so that is a totally different situation and isn't comparable with a development announcement which just means they are expecting to successfully build and test some prototypes and maybe tweak the design until they decide it is ready for production.