I wouldn't say they have blown "fortunes" (with the exception of Itanium). For a long long time Intel was the dominant force in embedded microcontrollers as well. You may recall the 8051 architecture, still in use today which is in a bazillion products. That line flourished even when Intel was punished for its first 8086 "SOC" the 80186.
Intel has never learned the skill of serving multiple markets. Even when I was actively engaged with them in new designs they couldn't have the '64 bits in x86' discussion because that market was "owned" by the Itanium guys. There didn't seem to be any way to talk about x86 with those new features. I'm sure that was the same issue with SOCs. If I could advise them, that is the skill I would really want to work on, actionable listening to get ahead of their customers needs.
Intel has never learned the skill of serving multiple markets. Even when I was actively engaged with them in new designs they couldn't have the '64 bits in x86' discussion because that market was "owned" by the Itanium guys. There didn't seem to be any way to talk about x86 with those new features. I'm sure that was the same issue with SOCs. If I could advise them, that is the skill I would really want to work on, actionable listening to get ahead of their customers needs.