> So it seems like Apple was looking to build their own processors even before the iPhone became huge
So but possibly only because they had no alternatives. After all building your own chips is a huge long-term investment with all of risk. Intel fully committing to XSCale would probably have significantly altered that calculation.
> license the ARM architecture (unlike x86).
They still had to design their own cores which isn't cheap or straightforward. Something even Qualcomm struggled a lot with (and ended up failing at).
So but possibly only because they had no alternatives. After all building your own chips is a huge long-term investment with all of risk. Intel fully committing to XSCale would probably have significantly altered that calculation.
> license the ARM architecture (unlike x86).
They still had to design their own cores which isn't cheap or straightforward. Something even Qualcomm struggled a lot with (and ended up failing at).