dmcq (dmcq.delete@this.fano.co.uk) on February 8, 2015 5:14 am wrote:
> Agree it was for time to market constraints. From the time they learnt about the Apple A7 would
> have been too short, they obviously thought they had another six months at least in hand before
> they needed such a chip. Even without that using an ARM design for the first version is a reasonable
> choice to make certain all the design bugs are ironed out doing a new architecture.


Why would Apple surprising everyone with their 64 bit A7 have any effect on Qualcomm's plans, given that Apple isn't in the business of selling ARM SoCs?

Android OEMs were going to want to sell 64 bit phones as early as possible regardless of what Apple was doing, because of the performance benefits (both real and perceived) If A57 was the fastest way to 64 bits after Apple got there first, it still would have been the fastest way had Apple decided to wait until 2015 to go 64 bit.