Revealing at CES != releasing anytime soon. They showed off phones last year at CES that did not release until much, much later in the year...
Yes they did and the phones did not sell well. The gap between announcement and release was to bit.
This will be the first batch of true Sony phones. They will be much faster to the market than last year.
But you have a valid point. AT&T is always months behind on European carriers to offer Sony phones.