It was pretty much the same device, yes, but I think personally that giving us 8x the memory for the same price (and a much improved navigation button) is a pretty good improvement!
I think personally they are extremely wise not to "pre-announce"; if there's one thing guarenteed to kill current sales stone dead, it's a pre-announcement of new products. Not to mention the fact that if the release date slips, people moan about it
.