Submission + - Java 8 Delayed To Fix Security (i-programmer.info)
“Maintaining the security of the Java Platform always takes priority over developing new features, and so these efforts have inevitably taken engineers away from working on Java 8.”
The major change still to be made to Java 8 is Project Lambda, which Reinhold says is “the sole driving feature of the release”. He laid out alternatives such as dropping Lambda from this release, but said Oracle has decided instead to wait until Lambda is ready. The revised schedule for JDK 8, proposed on April 18, 2013 is:
May 9, 2013 M7 Feature Complete
September 5, 2013 M8 Developer Preview
January 23, 2014 M9 Final Release Candidate
March 3, 2014 GA General Availability
The delay means that Java SE 9 will probably be released in early 2016, rather than late 2015