Paul Otellini, the retired CEO of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), regrets his decision of turning down the proposal from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to build the silicon, which would have powered Apple’s first iPhone. He could not foresee the insane success which Apple phones were destined to achieve.
Otellini said in an interview given to The Atlantic that the chip maker lost the opportunity to play an important role in the making of iPhone by providing them the processors.
“We ended up not winning it or passing on it, depending on how you want to view it. And the world would have been a lot different if we’d done it,” he said.
Otellini regrets his decision
Otellini said that when Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) approached Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) then, the Cupertino based company was not known to the world, and no one had any idea that this company would rock in the time ahead. The proposal was that they wanted an Intel chip to power their phones, and in return they would pay for it and nothing more than that. The price that Apple proposed to pay for the chips was less than the estimated cost of the company.
Otellini regretted that he could not forecast, and the volume was 100x more than anyone would have estimated.
Intel’s Loss Samsung’s Gain
When being turned down by Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) approached Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) –built ARM, which powered the first iPhone, and later on being successful Apple now uses the chips made by Samsung for all its smartphones. For the first time in its iPhone 5 Apple has used indigenously built ARMv7 core with the A6 SoC.
The Korean Company, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) emerged as the saviors for Apple at that time, and till date some fabrication facilities of the company are used to mix the A-series of Apple. However, there are expectations that this partnership may soon come to an end because the apprehensions between the two companies are increasing.
Otellini said even if the Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930)-Apple partnership breaks here, Samsung has extracted massive benefits from this deal all these years, the benefits which could have been Intel’s.
Lesson Learned
Otellini said that he got a lesson from this incident that mostly people follow and make decisions based on huge data but he has made many decisions in his life with his gut and should have done the same in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) case. Otellini said. “My gut told me to say yes.”
Paul Otellini has been the CEO of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) for eight years. He stepped down from his post yesterday, and Brian Krzanich is the new CEO of the company.