x86 would be more competitive in the mobile space if Intel had offered efficient chips. Is the instruction set the biggest blocker that prevented this? Or is it the licensing model? Perhaps if Intel had licensed their architecture and instruction set to others, like ARM does, they would be in a better position?
ARM's licensing model get's a lot more eyes on instructions sets and chip designs. It allows big companies like Apple come in and run the show, licensing just the instruction set. Why wasn't Intel working with large customers with an interest in custom x86 designs? In hindsight it seems presumptuous to assume there is no x86 talent outside Intel/AMD.
Really impossible to know how much the actual instruction set is holding Intel back without being on the inside.