Jean-Louis Gassée: Intel fights for its future

Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:

By declining Steve Jobs’ proposal to make the original iPhone CPU in 2005, Intel missed a huge opportunity. The company’s disbelief in Apple’s ambitious forecast is belied by the numbers: More than 1.8 billion iOS devices have been sold thus far.

And:

One may wonder why then-CEO Paul Otellini didn’t make Apple an offer they couldn’t refuse: Access to Intel’s superior silicon manufacturing technology. At the time, Apple had nothing; Intel held all the cards.

And:

A few years later, after the dramatic rise of ARM-powered smartphones, Intel execs’ faith in Wintel was unshaken: “The temporary advantage these less sophisticated, Windows-less ARM chips are enjoying will be erased by the superior silicon manufacturing process of the x86. It’s nothing…”

Fantastic take on Intel’s Apple hubris. Now Intel is fighting for its very existence.