Seems kind of silly though to make an announcement about a future announcement of a testnet release... which simply means it'll still be like 4 months (if it works) before phase 0 of a multi-year process to get to 2.0.
It'd be like an author making a pre-announcement about the date he plans to announce the font he is choosing to use when writing his book. I guess it at least means progress is being made, but still, seems kind of underwhelming.
I agree its a bit silly but I guess they wanted to create some sort of buzz before announcing a date. I have no problem they can do anything they like as long as they don't delay again and positively announce the date next week lol.
What are they doing? Are they making some hype here, I think since the announcement date was emphasize, then I expect they will have a good news, no more delays, people are tired of the delaying tactic they are doing, it doesn't do good with the project, and I think the timing is good now since the market is quite stable and in the last weeks, ETH has been stable and a little bullish.
Its media guys. They create hype. Ethereum themselves, they just do the work, finesse the beads and pieces of the whole thing before unfurling it to the pubic. Another thought, they have enterprise clients keen to know precise details and whatnot about the 2.0 milestone. These clients are more demanding than average investors and want to test features on testnet whenever possible, or as soon as it leaves buterins desk.