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> How do seemingly invincible forces in the market get killed by smaller foes?

In terms of value ARM is a far smaller company than Intel. But in terms of cores manufactured, ARM is way larger. ARM (through their partners obviously) shipped 10 billion cores in 2013. Intel shipped about half a billion.

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Yes, because ARM is the IP

Intel is the IP + Manufacturing + Other business areas

The right comparison would be ARM IP vs. Intel IP or ARM + Manufacturers vs. Intel x86 area

Of course I'm aware of how ARM operates. We have the sales figures from 2013 as well, and Intel is larger than the ARM partners combined. However I think that just indicates that (a) ARM processors are lower featured and hence cheaper and (b) there's real competion in the ARM processor market which is mostly absent from the x86 market.

http://www.icinsights.com/news/bulletins/Qualcomm-And-Samsun...

You hit the nail in the head. Intel has built up amazing margins on the x86 business over the years by beating out competitors. ARM margins are razor thin by comparison and Intel can't bring themselves to cannibalize their cash cow by becoming another ARM manufacturer.

Similar to iPhone vs Android, in many ways. And judging by Apple's changing fortunes, similar results.

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