For all of those who see the pace of announcements and releases as a grand Machiavellian scheme by the twirling mustache set at Canon, consider looking at this from a development, design, manufacturing, and finance perspective.
Sony's remarkable "new" technology that they constantly introduce is years old when it hits the shelves. Canon's outdated tech is maybe a bit older, but both are technically obsolete before they start. That's life in microelectronics, for the time being. Point being - more e.g. was spent a long time ago.
Design of a complex camera takes a long time, each working day has certain design elements frozen (no change until the next model, unless you want to delay & blow the budget on this one). I don't know the cycle in cameras, but I expect it to be measured in years.
Unless you want to build a new factory for each new model, you have to build an excess inventory for the old model, convert the assembly line to the new one, get the kinks out of the new assembly process, then build an inventory for the initial sales volume. Someplace close to the end of that process you make the announcement.
R&D involves some serious money, but it doesn't interfere with revenue.
Once you start building inventory on the old model, you are boosting costs without a corresponding rise in revenue. Shutting down for conversion, and then starting up the new line is seriously expensive. I don't know camera manufacturing costs, but I would be amazed if you can play this game for less than several hundred million.
Does Canon do this with cash on hand or borrowed funds? Either way, someone is SCREAMING for a payback measured in months.
The technical team promised a release date a year or two before go time. The board of directors has been monitoring their ability to meet that on a regular basis, with consequences for any slip. The finance team has been watching the money just as closely. They know that payback cannot start before cameras ship.
Now, someone suggests a delay to subtly manipulate demand between the various models. They would never be invited to those meetings again.