I wonder if they saw the coronavirus stuff, and saw Microsoft announce and thought - oh no it's only going to get worse, so now is the time to announce, while they can still get some attention by the media. Though even more likely is they both know they can't have 'stage' shows now to announce, so they might as well just spill the beans online.
The realist in me is they are carefully crafting their message to show disparity between it and xbox, and now that MS has announced they know what specs to play up and what to play down. Say maybe they don't have the TF win, so they'll play up 'efficiency' and some other buzzwords to make it sound just as good. Anyways, I'm trying to keep my expectations low so I can be pleasantly surprised. Also, I'd absolutely love to see some VR mentions. Really want to see what kind of SSD they have if Mark is genuine about his words on it last time.