That might be right, but then surely Apple would of known how much work it takes. So why tell people they'll have an SDK in developers hands by February?
Apparently you have never worked in a large organization before...
The answer is that even the best laid plans and timelines often meet unexpected roadblocks. I would guess that Apple wanted to help set expectations in an area that is being watched closely, and then found they couldn't meet that self-imposed timeline. (Keep in mind this is a RUMOR, not fact, also...we don't really know what will or won't be released on March 6.)
But for actual application developers, the thing they care about most is knowing what the SDK will provide, the application development and distribution model, the security model, any pricing structures within iTunes, potential tiers for vetted and "untrusted" applications, and so on. Whether the SDK is delayed by a week or the first one being a beta, or the "February" timeframe slipping by a month or two, doesn't matter at all to developers and enterprise customers.
The only thing that matters is if users can install applications developed from whatever SDK is released next week.
Wrong. That is probably the LEAST important thing. That is important to YOU. That is not important, at all, to the actual developers and the people who will be making the third-party app ecosystem on the iPhone work.