"Of course, while Intel's accelerated Coffee Lake-S launch makes it look today's unveiling is a direct response to heated competition, in reality, the long incubation period for new processors means it’s more likely the result of 10nm manufacturing delays. "
This IS a direct response to Ryzen. Design had been in development for a while, sure. But Intel threatening its own sales and releasing this much earlier than expected is exactly what everyone else think this is: a response to Ryzen, no matter how Intel's marketing team tells people to talk about these things. Also, the price is certainly lower than what Intel charged for such a CPU (best for gaming)...are we blind or what? Yes, Intel flexing its muscle to get competitive against AMD. Winner: us. If it wasn't for AMD, Intel would have relesed a refresh with another .3% improvement "for a whole generation".
"Ummm... Yeah, the design may have been kicking around, and ready to go before Ryzen, but when it is released months earlier than scheduled.... Saying that it wasn't a response to Ryzen seems more like misinformation more than pure fact. Yeah, I don't doubt 10nm manufacturing delays played a part in the previous release date, but Ryzen forced its release a little earlier than planned."
It IS misinformation.