lt cap,

As you know, I've long been a fan of intel - and an Apple win would go a long way towards taking the focus off their $1bln expediture to start making chips to get a handhold in growing segments (e.g., phones, mobile, etc.), which had returned $1 mln in revs at that point. I wonder what the margin is if they win this deal. Regardless, although the (permanent I think) decline in pc sales is a rough thing for them to overcome, I prefer to think of their size and R and D budget as a way to throw their weight around (MSFT lost a lot of money when Xbox first appeared), rather than them being a pitiful, helpless giant. So far, so good. But can they really handle this transformaive transition? 

(BTW, yes, the die shrink of chips from 22nm to 14nm was painful, as it was costly and it took a much longer time than expected to work out the bugs in the manufacturing process. I don't really know, but I'd guess that competitors like Taiwan Semiconductors faired no better, as to my layman's eyes, it seem in some way like problem in physics, rather than a lack of basic know-how. The Skylake chips that have been available since last fall seem to be doing very well, as they're selling at or above suggested retail price - don't know if that's 'quieted down' now, but their popularity is a good sign. The 'k' versions have the best, 'granular' overclocking of any of their previous chips I believe. (Yes, a small but rabid niche of overcloking crowd.)  I've read that the shrink underway to 10 nm will be even harder and more expensive than the 14 nm shrink. But I've not heard of any other manufacturer having a big advantage over INTC, which is what was feared with the delay to 14nm. I could just be ignorant on that front, or perhaps more politely ' under -read' on the subject.)