I checked Media Markt in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and they told me earliest delivery would be in the first week of March. There seems to be a supply shortage of the displays.
This is unlikely as the displays are generic TN panels.
The most likely reason for the delay is exactly what Apple have said, they have trouble wrapping them.
When you design a new product, the most overlooked thing is the packaging, and the 15" Unibody's got new, much smaller boxes than the old 15" MBP's, so it stands to say the 17" ones will have as well.
If you think about it, the only thing different from the old 17" or the 15" unibody is the Screen which as i've said already is fairly generic, and most likely plentyful in China, the battery which by the way isn't anything new, its fairly generic too, just a new shape, and the packaging.
The only other possible reason other than the packaging for the delay is actually something that came to me during a meeting we were having on shipping at the company i work for, think about it, Apple has already said they've had unprecidented demand for this product, above what they were expecting, now this is probably marketing speil to make you think its popular, but also if they had loads of orders they may decide to scrap the original plan of flying the 17"'s to their delivery stations in the US, Europe etc and Ship them over in a cargo vessel instead, (as a container ship can carry many more computers than a cargo flight could) which is why we all have the same shipping date.
