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I think the gap was market size estimation. Intel was (is?) famously not interested in businesses that can’t generate $1B of incremental revenue in the first ye

I think the gap was market size estimation. Intel was (is?) famously not interested in businesses that can’t generate $1B of incremental revenue in the first year or two. iPhone was predictably huge, but I don’t think it was a sure thing it would be this huge. And Intel’s finance-driven culture probably did the math and decided it was better to pass because of the uncertainty. Finance hates uncertainty.

rickdeckard 2y ago
yeah, but according to the article it wasn't even clear at that point that it's a phone project. It was too early to even make such predicitions. At that time, it could as well have been Apple's attempt to a build an Apple TV (which never materialized), a Set-Top-Box (which was reworked for years to then end up as a iPhone-in-a-box AppleTV), a Premium Wi-Fi network, a game console,...
AtlasBarfed 2y ago
And of course by the time a market exists for that dollar figure, Intel has been beaten hopelessly, such that there is no hope for as stodgy and apathetic Intel is culturally. This is what monopolies do, it breeds laziness in the good days, and as a company backslides on the morass of apathetic incompetent mbas that settled into their middle management Machiavelli fiefdoms, it becomes a clinging game to make retirement before layoff