The big flaw in this reasoning is assuming Apple would win big enough from a switch to make the upheaval worth while. The Apple ARM chips are great but there i

The big flaw in this reasoning is assuming Apple would win big enough from a switch to make the upheaval worth while. The Apple ARM chips are great but there is no publicly known reason to believe Intel cannot keep pace. This leaves price and manufacturing economies as the only reasons which is much different than the Motorola scenario. You say Apple will do this to offer Macs for $50 less? That's a meaningless differentiation for their product line. I believe you also underestimate the importance of dual-booting/running VMs, which is quite widespread. A lot of people run Windows for just one or two apps, but it's apps they have to have. Also what about gaming? New games could target ARM/Neon but massive libraries of existing games would become unplayable. Even the price argument is not a slam dunk because Intel has already been willing to forego profits and subsidize in the mobile space, they might be willing to do the same in the desktop space if they truly felt threatened.