Although Intel, for the first time, can claim to be a credible mobile processor vendor, it has spent billions of dollars in acquisitions, R&D, subsidies and losses to get there, and is still tiny compared to Qualcomm (it sold 46m mobile SoCs last year, according to its filings). Its use of subsidies to boost its tablet market share meant that the mobile division made negative sales in the fourth quarter of 2014, as well as a loss which would have wiped out the total profits of most rivals (all of them except Qualcomm and TSMC, according to Bloomberg). Nonetheless, Intel’s stock was a strong performer on the Dow Jones index last year though investors are likely to be rewarding the…