[kobayashi]

>The poor timing for Kaby Lake mobile processors [was one of] Apple's reasons stated when the topic of "the MBP isn't keeping up with the competition" arises.

I've heard similar sentiments quite a few times. However, there's little reason to believe that Apple would have been able to meet their needs better than Intel could have. It's not like Intel's development schedule was misaligned with Apple. They just couldn't get the processor out in time.