I have no clue, it could be delayed because AMD needs to clear inventory, it could just be a tactical ploy to deceive Nvidia. The terminology is quite vage, what's "quite some time" in tech terms, 23 minutes?
I don't really put a lot of stock in PR/Sales info, if he said, Oh yeah boi's 8xxx series is coming up fast! He'd basically be saying, don't buy these awesome bundles we're selling, wait for the new and improved cards!
Various reasons, not everyone who upgraded to this gen would switch, but I'd imagine quite a few would. You also have to figure there are many people with older cards waiting, perhaps forever... 9800's are still common as well as 4xxx series, Fermi is still noticeably popular with the mid-range models. Trick is getting them to buy more so than getting current gen owners to imo, since current gen is still lagging behind last gen.
Personally I've been waiting for Haswell and a new gpu since forever, this news is especially disappointing to me I was really hoping for a 8xxx series and 7xx series refresh around Haswell's release so I'd get all new toys