The buggy-whip analogy is interesting and applicable from a certain viewpoint ("big core" thinking in a low-power market) but I'm not sure it fully works: mobile chips are fundamentally converging toward desktop chips microarchitecturally (big out-of-order engines and wider pipelines, larger cache hierarchies, higher clock speeds, the move to 64-bit, etc), and Intel's desktop/server parts are also converging toward mobile in many ways (very power-efficient, more on-chip SoC-like integration).
In other words, they're different markets, but I'm not sure that they're so different that Intel's existing expertise couldn't allow them to build a kickass part if they played cards right. They still employ some of the world's best microarchitects and design engineers. My feeling here is that this is more of a business/execution issue than a fundamental big-incumbent-doesn't-get-it failure.
In other words, they're different markets, but I'm not sure that they're so different that Intel's existing expertise couldn't allow them to build a kickass part if they played cards right. They still employ some of the world's best microarchitects and design engineers. My feeling here is that this is more of a business/execution issue than a fundamental big-incumbent-doesn't-get-it failure.