That's a smart strategy.

Lots of consoles are going to be sold this xmas, so Nintendo announcing now may help hold people off from switching to msft/sony.

The only better strategy would have been an Xmas launch, a spring launch means they aimed for xmas but the schedule slipped.

I suppose it gives them time to get it right, rather than rushing to wrap it up, but also tries to pull the old "vaporware" trick of trying to get potential customers to delay purchasing a competitor's product.