Intel Corp (INTC)

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It's kind of sad that Intel spends more on mobile R&D than any of these players (QCOM included) and yet its product lineup is still spectacularly bad.

You continue to miss the notion of a 5-year technology pipeline.

That's the reaction time needed to build the best product. When you learn something new and course-correct on a smaller timeline, you end up with a less optimal solution, and the shorter the timeline, the less optimal a change you can make.

Intel's 5-year optimized product is Broxton. They knew in 2010 that they needed a solution targeted for phones and tablets, and 2015 is how long it takes for an optimally targeted product.

Clovertrail, Bay Trail, Merrifield, etc. are all stepping stones along the way. You were expecting perfection in 2013, but sadly the technology pipeline takes longer than that. You need to reset your expectations, and take in a little more reality of how long it takes this business to course-correct.

By the way, the only reason Mediatek and others have moved faster is by using off the shelf parts. Mediatek is not an inventor of anything. They just take pre-existing, pre-validated widgets, and create something low cost and targeted with them. Qualcomm's solutions have had the 5 years of focused and targeted development, and that's why they're winning (not necessarily because they're technologically superior).