This is the kind of thing I have in mind: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7117/haswell-ult-investigation http://www.anandtech.com/show/7117/haswell-ult-investiga

This is the kind of thing I have in mind: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7117/haswell-ult-investigation http://www.anandtech.com/show/7117/haswell-ult-investigation Even their "ultrabook"-class Haswell parts are becoming power competitive with ARM tablet chips. The Y series should get even closer to parity. Broadwell is, in theory, right around the corner, with Intel claiming another 30% power improvement in the 14nm process. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7318/intel-demos-14nm-broadwell-up-to-30-lower-power-than-haswell http://www.anandtech.com/show/7318/intel-demos-14nm-broadwel... Intel will have a significant process advantage over the ARM partners for at least another couple of years, and possibly longer. I would be surprised if they failed to overcome the engineering challenges required to exploit that process advantage in mobile. My point isn't that I'm sure who's going to win, but rather that Apple is not inextricably tied to ARM.