&gt; 10 years later they are now in the same position with Intel. If Intel delays the next version of its product line by six months then Apple has to put things on hold. This is bad for a company like Apple as it could cause them to miss out on potentially lucrative periods (back to School, the Holiday season etc).<p>This article isn&#x27;t about laptops, though. It&#x27;s about ARM. Apple isn&#x27;t dependent on anyone for ship dates in the ARM space -- they license the ISA, but they design their own chips based on the license. Yes, they&#x27;re reliant on Samsung to fab the things, but Apple doesn&#x27;t need their own ISA if they want to use their own fabs. I don&#x27;t see how replacing ARM with a custom ISA helps Apple any.<p>(As for Intel -- it&#x27;s not like Intel&#x27;s other customers don&#x27;t have the exact same sales periods that Apple does. So they&#x27;re motivated. As others have said, if Intel slips deadlines like that, who&#x27;s to say Apple has the ability to meet them where Intel couldn&#x27;t?)