A Panasonic Non-Christmas

I wonder if the Japanese camera makers -- I'm looking at you, Panasonic -- have ever noticed that we here in the US, one of the biggest markets in the world, have this phenomenon known as the Christmas buying season, when you can sell huge amounts of product, followed by the January-February buying bust, when nobody has any money to buy anything? And if they have noticed that, even in passing, I wonder why they tend to make camera announcements in the middle of the fall, for delivery here in the US sometime around Christmas...about six weeks too late to catch the season?

I really would have liked to a GX1 for Christmas...but Hello Celestron telescope!