Venture Beat's report on March 10 that an Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) modem had been selected by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) for an upcoming iPhone targeted at emerging markets had Intel bulls salivating, but the celebration was short lived, after Intel lowered its guidance for the March quarter. The modem selection, if it goes through, does offer a glimpse of the future for Intel and Apple, but perhaps not the future Intel bulls have in mind. One of the things I've noticed in writing for SA for the past almost two years is that fans of Intel also tend to be fans of other large chipmakers, especially Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). It's understandable in retrospect, since they share a common business model as commodity IC manufacturers. Writing in 2013, it struck me as odd, since it was apparent to me that the companies were on a collision course with business objectives that were ultimately mutually exclusive. Read more