your theory would be fine except for the slight problem that without ARM Inc the massive global low power smartphone market wouldn't exist today, in fact its only since the ARM cortex A8 that most average users finally realized that ARM existed, but they have been around a very long time and all the many ARM vendor licencee's have sown up the Mass low power world markets a very long time ago now.

sure there always was a small contingent of superH, MIPS etc vendors in phones to also contribute a small % and perhaps finally Intel will also find a place and help fill that small sub section of the world markets sometime soon, but remember this is not your old school x86 market place and the masses of long time ARM licencee's will not give up their low power top spot without a fight even for that small NON ARM corner.

as for "dozens of variations that are all incomparable with each other. So the market is flexible" you also have to remember and realize that's exactly what all these many ARM licencee's today are in the "Linaro" initiative to have all their ARM engineers actually write the new Cortex ARM/NEON SIMD optimized code and integrate or throw out all their old disparate ARM code bases into a single binary and submit it upstream in to the Kernel for all ARM/NEON vendors to simply load and use, and yet still remain flexible.

they are in effect providing a new standard base ARM platform infrastructure with ARM cortex at the core , again see Charbax's 32 videos at the Linaro Connect show to get a flavor of whats what http://slashdot.org/submission/2097239/videos-linaro-engineers-talk-about-the-status-of-linux-on-arm

as you say Tough Love, i too cant see Intel matching $ for $ the likes in bulk of for instance Freescale and their £22ish per 1.2ghz i.MX6 Quad core SOC with any of their intel offerings today or any time soon and that's just one single ARM white box vendor never mind any of the other vendors with faster ARM A15 and better SOC on the table this year.

LOL true, but no one cares as long as ARM Inc provides a Processor Optimization Pack (POP) for a given provider process and they do.

Guspaz, they skipped 22nm and went directly to 20nm as per their original 2010 plan

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4088580/TSMC-skips-22-nm-rolls-20-nm-process
"Mark LaPedus
4/13/2010 1:30 PM EDT

TSMC skips 22-nm, rolls 20-nm process ....
(TSMC) is putting a new spin on its strategy: After the 28-nm node, it plans to skip the 22-nm ''full node'' and will move directly to the 20-nm ''half node.''

At its technology conference here, the world's largest silicon foundry also provided details about its 20-nm CMOS process, which will be the company's main technology platform after the 28-nm node. TSMC will also not offer an 18-nm process.

TSMC's 20-nm process is a 10-level metal technology based on a planar technology. It will feature a high-k/metal gate scheme, strained silicon and newfangled ''low-resistance'' copper ultra-low-k interconnects--or what it calls ''low-r.

'' For the 20-nm node, it will only offer a high-k/metal-gate scheme for the gate stack--and not a silicon dioxide option.
TSMC (Hsinchu) will continue to use 193-nm immersion lithography at 20-nm, but it will also deploy a double-patterning and source-mask optimization schemes.

Unlike its previous processes in recent times--which focused on low power first--TSMC's initial 20-nm process will be a high-performance technology. Following that process, it will roll out a low-power technology.

With the announcement, TSMC is seeking to gain an edge over its leading-edge rivals, such a GlobalFoundries, Samsung and UMC. ...."

thats what TSMC is for and why ARM inc have them and IBM etc as core partners for their tape out implementation program as in
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4229820/ARM-TSMC-design-20-nm-A15-processor
from way back in 10/18/2011

ARM said it would now optimize its physical IP to the TSMC 20-nm process for power, performance and area and produce a specification for a Cortex-A15 processor optimization pack (POP). It did not say how soon this would be completed.

"This first 20-nm ARM Cortex-A15 tape out paves the way for the next generation of SoC integration and performance," said Mike Inglis, general manager of ARM's processor division, in a statement. These SoCs will be suitable for smartphones, tablet computers, digital home systems, servers and wireless infrastructure, ARM said.

"Is Intel gonna fab the 20nm ARM chips?"

LOL the days not any where near where intel would be producing arm core tape out silicon, not even in obscure ARM FPGA chips.

thats what TSMC is for and why ARM inc have them and IBM etc as core partners for their tape out implementation program as in
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4229820/ARM-TSMC-design-20-nm-A15-processor from way back in 10/18/2011

ARM said it would now optimize its physical IP to the TSMC 20-nm process for power, performance and area and produce a specification for a Cortex-A15 processor optimization pack (POP). It did not say how soon this would be completed.

"This first 20-nm ARM Cortex-A15 tape out paves the way for the next generation of SoC integration and performance," said Mike Inglis, general manager of ARM's processor division, in a statement. These SoCs will be suitable for smartphones, tablet computers, digital home systems, servers and wireless infrastructure, ARM said.

sure you could do that , or you could finally do it right and read and actually implement in several prototype current patches for popular app's , video,audio,streaming,encoding etc from Brinch Hansen's paper's back when paper's really did solve practical problem's http://brinch-hansen.net/papers/

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrinch-hansen.net%2Fpapers%2F1995d.pdf
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrinch-hansen.net%2Fpapers%2F1995e.pdf
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbrinch-hansen.net%2Fpapers%2F1978a.pdf
etc....

did you miss the part where ARM cortex A9 + NEON SIMD have HDMI output these days or the fact these also have The new Mali T400 platform, and the next one The new Mali T604 platform will have http://www.rethink-wireless.com/print.asp?article_id=3942
"Samsung backs ARM's souped-up graphics platform
Mali T604 will support HD and 3D in low power devices, says ARM
CAROLINE GABRIEL
Published: 11 November, 2010 ...
he new Mali T604 platform, unveiled at ARM's developer conference this week, aims to bring high performance applications like 3D imaging and gaming to smartphones, without sacrificing battery life. The upgraded graphics processor will accelerate video applications while drawing less power, said marketing director Ian Smythe, and will handle 3D imaging and full HD video. Performance is up fivefold on the previous Mali, and when included in a chip, the core consumes less than 850 milliwatts.
Mali is designed to work with ARM's latest CPU core, the Cortex-A15, which targets smartphones, tablets and even servers. Up to 16 2.5GHz cores can work together for these larger systems.

Mali T604 will be compatible with Microsoft's DirectX 11 and with OpenCL 1.1, both programming frameworks for parallel processing over multiple cores. The inclusion of DirectX 11 aroused speculation that this programming technology would soon be supported fully in Windows Phone 7. Currently, full compatibility with DirectX 11 is only seen in Windows 7..."

you may also find these interesting too
http://liliputing.com/2011/01/freescale-introduces-new-single-dual-and-quad-core-chips.html
"...
the 6Quad the most expensive, the price difference isn’t expected to be all that great. Freescale tells me the single core chip will be available to device makers for under $10, while the quad core will cost more than $20, with the dual core model falling somewhere in between. Sure, that means the quad-core chip will cost more than twice as much as the single core chip, but we’re still not talking about a lot of money here...."

"Freescale will be among the first companies to make quad core ARM-based chips available. All three new chips will begin sampling in the second quarter of 2011, and the company expects devices using the new chips to hit the market before the end of the year...."

http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Freescale-iMX-6/
"....
The i.MX 6 series is Freescale's first ARM-based multicore SoC and first Cortex-A9 model. The processor advances the i.MX family with dual-stream 1080p video playback at 60 frames per second (fps), 3D video playback at 50Mbps, desktop-quality gaming, augmented reality applications, and novel content creation capabilities, says Freescale.

The SoC is also touted for being one of the first applications processors to offer hardware support for the open source VP8 codec. VP8 drives the related WebM open container format, both of which are supported in the most recent Android 2.3 release.

The i.MX 6 series uses 40nm fabrication and provides low power draw and advanced power management capabilities, says Freescale. The SoC is claimed to enable 1080p video (single stream) with only 350mW consumption. As a result, the i.MX 6 series can deliver up to 24 hours of HD video playback and 30-plus days of device standby time, claims the company....."

"The video coprocessor, meanwhile, is said in the dual or quad versions to support 1080p60 H.264 video decode. It also provides for 720p60 encode of H.264, with "1080p planned," says Freescale. Separately, Freescale refers to a 1080p30 encode feature, but it is unclear whether this will be available in the initial release or is the aforementioned "planned" feature.

The i.MX 6's image processing unit (IPU) supports a whopping four displays via HDMI 1.4, and offers stereoscopic image sensor support for 3D imaging, says the company. Other IPU features are said to include color adjustments, gamut mapping, gamma correction, contrast stretching, as well as compensation for low light conditions and backlight reduction.

The combination of the various multimedia coprocessors and engines, along with the multiple cores on the higher end versions, enables dual-stream capabilities and 3D video playback, says Freescale...."

"SATA-II and automotive interfaces

The 6Solo provides external memory support for up to 32-bit DDR3 and LPDDR2 memory, while the 6Dual and 6Quad versions support up to 64-bit DDR3 and dual-channel 32-bit LPDDR2 memory, says the company. Other special features are said to include an integrated EPD controller for e-reader applications on the 6Solo, and SATA II support with integrated PHY on the 6Dual and 6Quad.

All three models appear to support the SD 3.0 spec for flash memory, and offer support for PCI Express (PCIe), gigabit Ethernet, and multiple USB 2.0 ports, all with integrated PHY. LVDS support is also said to be available. Automotive-oriented interfaces include MIPI CSI, MIPI DSI, MIPI HSI, and FlexCAN, says Freescale...."

" I'm interested to hear what smartphone apps/features/functions — if any — Slashdot readers reckon quad-core chips would enable"

that's totally missing the real long term point of cortex , its not the smart phone , nit rather the form factor and far lower power for at full load on your desk that matters most

for instance the
http://armdevices.net/2011/03/03/trim-slice-tegra2-arm-cortex-a9-dual-core-desktop/
or even making the so dimm form factor instant plug in and power on popular
http://armdevices.net/2011/03/04/toradex-shows-tegra2-computer-on-so-dimm-form-factor/

and OC dont forget the lower power of your server
http://armdevices.net/2011/03/14/arm-powered-servers-designed-by-calxeda-could-be-10x-more-efficient-than-intel
ARM Powered servers designed by Calxeda could be 10x more efficient than Intel
Posted by Charbax – March 14, 2011 ...
The SOC, as Calxeda will demonstrate with one of its reference designs, will enable OEMs to design servers as dense as 120 ARM quad-core nodes (480 cores) in a 2U enclosure, with an average consumption of about 5 watts per node (1.25 watts per core) including DRAM....

its not always a case that its low quality encoding though.

you are aware that the BBC is as far as i know the only broadcasters that do multicasting test AVC/H.264
broadcasting ,assuming your ISP (alas Virgin Media dont ) allows and activates multicasting on their network.

http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/streams.html

true now you do have to ask to be included in the trials by email but their there if your able to use multicasting over the net,shame theres no simple tunneling app....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast/