Every Blender release is followed by a 'bugfix' release. From the developers meeting notes, it looks like 2.41 may see the daylight next week:
Instead of "2.40a" we drop the a/b convention and the 2.40 bugfix release will be called 2.41. in addition to bugfixes, it will include bpy api additions to complete the new armature/bone module, and the recent game engine improvements. So this week we attack the tracker, next sunday we then do 2.41 release, unless showstopper are found during meeting.
2.42 later, with bigger patches like the sequencer memory management, and perhaps this is when the orange merging will happen (so armature layers, nodal material editing etc. will be included).
