There were two reasons the IBM PC clones became dominant. The smaller reason is because IBM created it. The bigger reason is because everything but the BIOS was

There were two reasons the IBM PC clones became dominant. The smaller reason is because IBM created it. The bigger reason is because everything but the BIOS was off-the-shelf parts and easy to copy. Apple had the same problem with Apple II clones where only a couple of companies managed to not lose when sued by Apple. IBM couldn't sue Compaq and others for their clean room BIOS replacements. If the IBM PC had custom chips, it would not have been easy, or even possible, to clone and would have remained an IBM-only product. If that had been the case, I suspect CP/M and GEM would have won out and Microsoft would be much smaller and still producing language compilers today. The only question is, which version of CP/M would have won out? I think Motorola's 68K series would have won over Intel's x86 series.