A lot has changed since then. First came the iPhone, then Android, then the broader mobile revolution that made players like BlackBerry and Windows Mobile obsolete.
In 2010, Apple announced it needed better from the processors in the iPhone and iPad than it could get by letting other companies design the chips. So, it built its own processor based on Arm — and an Intel chip design. A few years later, Google followed suit. In no time, other players like Qualcomm were ready with chips like the Snapdragon to supply other Android device manufacturers.
Intel was largely AWOL from this mobile arms race, doggedly churning out chips for PCs, Macs, and servers — and blind to what was coming. Even as Apple began to flex its chip-design muscles with things like the Apple Watch SOC processor and custom silicon for its AirPods, Intel remained wedded to a market it seemed to own: computer processors for traditional computers.
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