[CamperBob2]

It's honestly not clear that the underlying CPU architecture really matters anymore. Smaller customers might care about the technical hassles involved with switching to a new architecture, but smaller customers don't count. The larger customers care much more about per-unit cost savings, and not at all about NRE costs.

In any case there isn't a lot of ARM assembly out there these days, and everything else can retarget x86 with little more than a recompile.

[jlgreco]

I don't think I agree with 6ren's analysis, but I think that the fact that it is "not clear that the underlying CPU architecture really matters anymore" means that the game has shifted for Intel.

It seems to me that Intel has traditionally benefited from the fact that CPU architecture has mattered (in x86's favor). The mere fact that x86 is no longer the only sensible choice, while obviously not a doom prophecy for Intel, isn't really an argument for Intel's continued relevance.

[ibrahima]

Well, you're right to some extent, but it also means that if Intel were to use their R&D might to engineer an x86 mobile chip that (for instance) is twice as fast as an ARM chip with the same power consumption, it would be in the next top iPhone/Android/WinMo handset without much difficulty. I honestly would not be too surprised if something along those lines happened. The RAZR M-i or actually seems to be competitive with the ARM version of the RAZR M in terms of battery life and performance, and they can only improve from there.

[makomk]

In practice Intel had to develop an ARM emulator for x86 to even stand a chance in the Android market, because so many apps use native ARM code and they have no reason to so much as recompile.

[simonh]

I suppose thy could buy into an exclusive deal with a minority market share platform such as BB10 or WinMo8 instead, because then the installed base wouldn't matter. That would only work if they could: (a) offer a competitive advantage over ARM. (b) make it financially appealing to the platform vendor. (c) Pick a platform that has a hope in hell of getting market traction. Their best bet there would be MS/Nokia, but it would be a case of seeing if tying three sinking ships together works better than two.