x86 was already on lock down. They could have ridden into the ARM ecosystem, guns blazing, and wouldn't have lost a penny from their existing x86 platform. ARM

x86 was already on lock down. They could have ridden into the ARM ecosystem, guns blazing, and wouldn't have lost a penny from their existing x86 platform. ARM doesn't compete against x86 in mobile. That's obvious now, but it (apparently) wasn't obvious at the time. Intel turned down a boat load of free money.