First of two parts: Systems vendors used to take their lead from chipmakers. Not anymore.
Throughout the PC era and well into the mobile phone market, it was semiconductor companies that called the shots while OEMs followed their lead and designed systems around chips. That’s no longer the case.
A shift has been underway over the past half decade, and continuing even now, to reverse that trend. The OEM — or systems company as it is more commonly called today — now determines what features go into a system, often based on what software will be needed or what application it will be used for. After that, the specification is developed for the hardware, including the performance characteristics, the power budget and the cost target.