I don't know anything more for certain about it than most other people. I'm guessing that the timing of the contest schedule is influenced by the availability (or rather, the non-availability at present) of the R200 developer kit. In last year's contest, the distribution of F200 cameras to round 1 contest participants was delayed by unforeseen delays at the camera manufacturing facility.
If they are planning on offering a choice of either the F200 or R200 dev kit to entrants (something I have no knowledge about but makes logical sense) then they would want to avoid a repeat of last year by ensuring the R200 kits are ready to distribute during their planned time-window for doing so.
