The only time period I can recall where Apple was egregiously behind Intel's release schedule, it was because Intel was behaving in an egregiously anti-competit

The only time period I can recall where Apple was egregiously behind Intel's release schedule, it was because Intel was behaving in an egregiously anti-competitive way. Apple kept using Core 2 processors in their low-end models long after the first generation Core i3/i5/i7 parts were introduced, because Apple had standards for GPUs. Intel wouldn't let NVIDIA make chipsets with integrated graphics any more, so Apple mostly kept using older Intel CPUs paired with decent NVIDIA integrated graphics until Intel's integrated graphics was almost good enough. (There have been other times where I've seen Apple widely accused of running behind on CPU updates, but only from people who aren't good at matching CPU models to the right product segment. Criticizing Apple for not using the latest generation yet in a product that uses 28W or 45W CPUs while the latest generation is only shipping 15W parts was never valid criticism.)