Maximum installable memory - questions

Hi guys,

Apple quotes a maximum of 8GB of ram. Now here's my question. I assume that lenovo use the same chipset for their 2.2 and 2.3GHz quad processors which are the same as the ones in the MBPs.

However, you can install up to 16 or even 32GB in the ThinkPad W520. Is Apple capping something here? I use a lot of photoshop with RAW and TIFF files and using quite a lot of filters and content aware which on my old machine took up some 1.3GB of temp memory. This is of course not always the case but I'm just wondering why the MBP only quotes a maximum of 8GB.

Has anyone got an idea?

 

Thanks, checked the most reliable source which in my view is the manufacturer itself. All questions answered, many thanks. I appreciate your time and clarification.