It kinda reminds me of now? KBL R, then CFL U. Now we have WHL U then ICL Y/U. The difference is CFL U offers a IGPU boost and 14nm++ manufacturing tech over KBL R. What does WHL U offer? Maybe it uses ICL PCH?
Kabylake-R features an integrated ISP which is critical for smaller Core based Tablets as it allows for higher quality webcams without the extra BoM and board area. I assume based on the timeframe Whiskey Lake U is a replacement of that.
Coffeelake-U then becomes the replacement for higher end Ultrabooks where premium graphics are needed. If they could have done it, I bet they would want to have an ISP in both, but the timeframe didn't work out. It's plausible since they want to launch 300-series chipset for Desktops early next year, that's what'll be bundled with CFL-U.
For Whiskey Lake,
the poster claims Prod ww27-34 for WHL-U, and Prod ww51'18-12'19 RTS ww07-20'19 for ICL-U. RTS for WHL-U doesn't exist, but if its planning to be released, obviously there is an RTS date. There seems to be an 8-10 weeks gap between Prod and RTS dates. Assuming 8 weeks that means,
Early August-Mid October 2018 for Whiskeylake-U launch, and Early February-Early May for Icelake-U launch. Best case scenario, we're looking at 9 months difference between the two, and worst case scenario we're looking at 3.5 months, with an average of 6 months.
Now you see why I am saying that is crazy!? Unless Whiskeylake-U offers something Icelake-U does not.
No one, I mean no one will offer a WHL-U replacement as ICL-U that early when it takes a couple of months just to get the volume ramp and the marketing teams all ready. Heck, try buying a notebook right after Intel announcement. You can't get it for 2-3 months after announcement. Why not just completely ignore WHL-U and wait few more months for ICL-U? They've done that in the past. It will happen again because we, as human beings don't change, even though technology does.