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Primarily cost. In 1975, the 6800 cost $175 (which was already a dramatic reduction from the initial price of $360); the 6502 launched that year at $25.

Motorola dropped prices on the 6800 in response, but they still couldn't match MOS's pricing.

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Indeed, the mask correction process that MOS came up with was really their killer advancement w.r.t. keeping design cost down, even considering the dramatically simpler 6502 core.

Just to save anyone else the effort, inflation adjusted those numbers are: $1,031.36, $2,121.66, and $442.01.

Based on what? The data sources I can find put inflation since 1975 at ~470%, which sounds high, but even then $25 is only ~$140, not $442.01

I used this: https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Checking again it looks like I'd used this calculator in the past for $250 so I got an extra zero in there by accident via autocomplete, sorry. I can no longer edit the original.

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